The Christmas Pact

Today is December 1st, which means it's officially the beginning of the best time of the year!

Or rather, what I used to consider the best time of the year.

Christmas used to make me feel like this:

You'd think that box had a pony in it!

But over the past few years, Christmas has made me feel like this:

Bah humbug!

And I don't enjoy feeling like Scrooge McDuck.  Although kids may get a little greedy around the holidays, they know how to appreciate the season.  They see snow and think, "Snowmen!  Sledding!  Yippee!" not, "Schnox!  Now I have to go clean off my car!"  They hear Jingle Bells and say, "Batman smells; Robin laid an egg!" not, "If I hear this song one more time, I'm gonna scream!"  And they see Christmas cookies and go, "Nom, nom, nom!" not, "I so don't need those calories."  Somewhere between stressing about decorations and cursing Christmas cards, adults have a tendency to lose themselves along the way...

My last few Christmases have not been so fun.  If the Ghost of Christmas Past turned back the last four years, you would witness (in order of occurrence but not gravity): extra jobs adding extra stress every year; a bad reaction to migraine medicine resulting in weeks of vertigo; surgery for our poor baby ferret and a holiday season giving him 8 un-prounouncable medications like Chloramphenicol; frantic manuscript revisions; relatives in the hospital; a death in the family; frenzied ornament painting for extra income; our car getting totaled; and hubby losing his job.  (Thank goodness we still had each other!)

Unfortunately, this seasonal bad-luck has struck many of my loved ones these past few years, too.  And with all this unpleasantness, it's been hard to get in the holiday spirit.  Decking the halls and making merry has just not been a priority--and I even shocked myself last year when I said, "I don't want to put up the Christmas tree." 

While the jury is still out on what this season will bring, I'm ready to try to turn things around.  Each of these past years, I ended up hating the holidays--and I absolutely hated my Scrooge-like hatred.  I want to love Christmas again--and I want others to love it, too.  (The Christmas Grumblings have already started in many of my acquaintances....)

Even Scrooge doesn't like to be a Scrooge...

Hubby and I have made a "Christmas Pact" this year that things will be different--that we're going to actively make an effort to wiggle our ears, and chuckle warmly, and say, "Hee hee," and "Ho ho..." all season long.  (Ah, the wisdom of Christmas specials!)  We've already experienced our fair share of deaths in the family, job insecurity, frantic book revisions, and a sick ferret (yes, the same one again) over the course of 2011, so it's time for fate to leave us alone.  (Same goes for my loved ones--I'm shaking my fist at you, fate!)  Total jobs I am working this year?  One!  Just one!  (That hasn't happened since High School!)  And I'm not even going to let the whirlwind Year-end Financial Planning Season at my office get me down!  :)

So what are we planning on doing?  (You know, instead of wrecking cars and administering ferret meds?)  Things of togetherness: watching Christmas movies; baking cookies; eating said cookies; going to the Columbus Zoolights; spending time with our families; watching more Christmas movies; eating more cookies; snuggling with our healthy pets; and doing all those other things that made us love the season when we were kids.  If I don't put up all the decorations, that's okay.  If our tree doesn't have dozens of presents underneath it, that's okay.  And if I don't get accomplish everything on my "X-mas To Do" list, then that's okay too.  Because as the Grinch learns, "Perhaps Christmas means a little bit more..."

I'm telling you this because everyone I've shared the the "Christmas Pact" with has really liked the idea.  It's so easy to get caught up in the chaos of Christmas and forget what's really important.  Although there are obviously many things beyond our control, we can choose whether we're going to freak out that we didn't buy enough snowflake-shaped Ritz crackers or say, "No biggie," and just be happy we have loved ones around the dinner table.  You've worked hard all year and deserve to enjoy this season of celebration!  So lift your mug of cocoa high, kiss those cares and lists goodbye, and try to love this season--TRY!  (And please, have another slice of pie.  You'll be back in shape before July.)

Um, I promise I'll stop rhyming now. 

Cheers to the start of a Merry Christmas Season!  Let's see if we can keep our spirit levels like this until the 25th: 

Much better!

Note: Mickey's Christmas Carol and Scrooge McDuck are owned by Disney.  First image is from google; second and third images are screenshots I took with my own TV and camera.