Day: December 21, 2005

Four days to Christmas and school is out. The kids arrived home from school with enough candy to feed all the starving children in Africa. I was too tired to play sugar police and so they ate it all afternoon yesterday. Of course they were all so full of candy that none of them wanted to eat dinner. This morning I slept in and before I managed to make breakfast, they’d already dug into the remains of the stash. The result was a pile of untouched pancakes that sat on the table for hours before I cleared it away.

Fortunately the weather was beautiful today so I was able to shoo the children out into the backyard to run off their sugar buzzes. I was even able to sneak a nap on the couch while they were out. I’m still over tired from staying up too late every night for nearly two weeks. Howard and I binged on CSI every night almost as badly as the kids binged on their candy. But now the CSI is all finished and the candy is all consumed.

In theory this means a return to normality. Only we’re entering the anticipatory can’t-sleep phase of the Christmas season. Tomorrow, Friday, & Saturday all have events scheduled and Sunday is Christmas. I need to make sure everyone gets to bed on time tonight.

4 days to Christmas and I’m feeling pretty blah about the whole holiday thing. I didn’t do any shopping this year. Or rather I did it all last spring & summer when no one else was even thinking about Christmas yet. And even if they were thinking about Christmas, I don’t think that garage sales are really big on the holiday decorating thing. Christmas is supposed to be about gift giving in honor of the greatest of all gifts, but somehow it ended up being all about shopping. Since I’ve skipped out on shopping I’ve somehow also missed out on the anticipatory frenzy that enlivens this time of year.

Anticipation seems to be part of the glow of this season. As the mom I’m usually in on all the secrets. I helped wrap all those gifts under the tree, so I know what is in them all. It is entirely possible to have great anticipation about giving a gift you know will delight. I felt that way about the yummy expensive cheese that a schlocker conspired with me to get for Howard. But I was so excited about it that I gave it to him early. I claimed this was because I wanted it to stay fresh, but mostly it was because I knew he’d love it and I couldn’t wait to give it to him. In retrospect that may not have been wise because now I have nothing that I really look forward to giving. I guess I’ve been thinking about Christmas for so long that everything I’ve squirrelled way seems old and tired to me.

Hopefully this will turn around before Sunday. I actually rather expect it to, but this is in my head today.