Goodbye, Thanksgiving; Hello, Christmas

It’s December 1st, and we are well into the holiday season. Farewell to the month of turkeys and overeating and Black Friday shopping and football. Hello to the month of hams and overeating and all-the-time shopping and football. Wait a second – those sound vaguely the same . . .

holiday food meme

We have survived Thanksgiving here in America. Kids were out of school for a whole week. The stores were crazy with people trying to buy everything from frozen turkeys to placemats to pre-Black-Friday toys. There were multiple football games on Thursday, with actual, televised halftime shows. People traveled to see extended families and friends. We were grateful for our loved ones and celebrated by eating ridiculous amounts of food, and then said prayers of thanks for elastic-waist pants while we lounged on the sofa.

So now it’s December. People will buy a ridiculous number of things they really don’t need, all in the name of love or celebrating the end of the year or Santa. We will undoubtedly eat way too much food because there will be holiday parties galore with food and drink and we’ll partake in all of it (to be polite, of course). We will buy things like Christmas coffee mugs embellished with ceramic candy canes because, gosh darn it, those are cute and I want one for my mantel. Then we will put a fork in it, declare it done, and pretend we did it all to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Christmas mug decorated with candy canes

See how cute this candy candy cane mug is? Totally necessary for my mantle.

All in all, this is a pretty good time of year. People laugh and smile and spend time with friends and family. Non-profit groups take in more donations than other times of the year. The temperature cools enough to justify my love for hot tea and hot cocoa. As an added bonus, none of my neighbors fell off their roofs or 30-foot ladders while they tried to hang Christmas lights.

And, despite those wonderful things, I have a feeling that the news during the holidays will still focus on the election nonsense. It seems at some point we will realize the media plays a huge part in how we view things – primarily because they control what we see and how we see it. Unfortunately, it’s mostly negative. I have a few little thoughts on all that.

  • If you are old enough to vote responsibly, please do not act like a petulant toddler if you did not get your way. Let’s be real: we had two ridiculous characters who nobody really liked. They each spent their entire campaign demeaning the other side. And now we are stuck with one of them. Either way, half of everyone was destined to be disappointed. No need to burn flags or destroy property or act like my kid does when she does not get to eat candy for dinner. Yes, we all like candy, but sometimes we have to suck it up and be an adult and eat the broccoli and the lima beans. (And, no, I have no idea what recipe would require you to eat both of those at one time.)
  • And if you run a business or a school, please expect people to act like adults instead of canceling tests and providing safe rooms and coloring books. There is no need to insult coloring books.
  • If you truly believe the world is about to end, please do not tell that to my kids. They still believe in the magic of Disney and Santa and a land where ponies have colorful hair, throw awesome parties, and spontaneously break into song. Letting kids be kids is hard; please don’t make the job harder. Just keep that negativity to yourself.

Actually, my oldest daughter came home from school yesterday in tears because she did not make her school’s UIL team this year. It was all her idea to tryout, and she was bummed. The parent in me recognized this was a great life lesson: we didn’t love her any less and we were glad she tried her best. You try your best, hope for the best, and want the best. When it’s over, you accept the outcome and move forward either way. If you don’t like the outcome, you can try hard and try again the next time.

That’s what we encouraged her to do. And that’s what we should all be doing – we hoped for the best, we wanted the best, but now we have to accept what the cards have dealt and move forward. It doesn’t help to pout or drag your feet or complain the whole time. Is there a saying about how negativity begets negativity? If there isn’t, there really should be.

So, let’s maintain a positive outlook. The world still turns, the sun still rises, and my kids are still absolutely bonkers. And we still have our books, which provide excellent alternate worlds for us to sink into if we want a little break from reality. Hooray, books!

Discussion

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