Christmas

Well here it is. The day of Santa, presents, chocolate, toys, wine, rum, wrapping paper, hopped up little ones on a sugar buzz that will last till the next year, and oh yes - Jesus' birthday. A little cynical? Perhaps. Christmas is a time of joy and togetherness. A time of family and traditions... For some. For others, it is a time of bad memories, lack of family fuzziness and just a reason to dip into the egg nog while checking the stuffing for anything that may be a little bit better left to being rolled up and smoked. Why is it that as a society we are encouraged to believe the Hollywood ideal? Is the big family gathering the norm? Or are we collectively in denial to be able to live up to the expectation of the extreme?

I, for one, adore the turkey, the presents, the picking things out that have little meanings and inside jokes for people you think of on a regular basis and not just when protocol deems it needed. I love the feel of the church on the Eve of Christ's birth. I do I really do. In the same breath I have to say I hate the fabricated bullshit that surrounds people in the holiday season. The niceties that come out this time of year that wouldn't be thought of at all in say February or June. I mean the gushing smiles and the "How the heck are you?"'s when they don't want to stick around for a real answer.

Maybe I am just jaded. Maybe I have spent too many Christmas' past living a different reality than the painted on smiles of the Cleaver family. Perhaps somewhere under this I am still waiting for the Grinch's heart to grow three sizes and to gather round the tree and sing with the Whos.

Whatever your case may be, I still wish you wholeheartedly "Merry Christmas!"

Perhaps I am not so jaded after all.