It is December, which means that most of you are probably stressed. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice and whatever made up science fiction holiday that Scientologists celebrate are all stressful in their own way- unless, of course, you are a child. This is typically the time of year where my seasonal depression kicks in and my anxiety rises. Buying gifts for people and visiting family is a lot of pressure. When you are a kid you don't have to worry about any of that. You get a week off from school, people give you stuff and changes to your routine are widely accepted as a good thing because you get gifts, you can sleep in and you don't have homework. Not when you are an adult. Adults not only have to worry about gift giving, which for some reason is an incredibly hard thing to do, but also appeasing all of their family members and creating the illusion that they still closely follow the traditions of whatever religion they choose to believe- at least while their grandparents are around. Don't even get me started on this whole 'including everyone from other cultures and beliefs' crap, either. I don't ask Jews to put up a Christmas tree, don't make me put up a menorah. Also, don't make me put the 'Christ' back in
Christmas. Abbreviating doesn't make me an atheist. It means I don't have enough room or energy to write out a nine letter word. Sorry for ruining your birthday, Jesus. I'll get larger Post-it notes sometimes.
As a child, Christmas was always a time when it seemed like the entire world stopped, but as an adult you realize that, despite all of your obligations for the month, life does not, in fact, stop in any way. You still have to go to work, you still have to pay all of your bills and no one gives you any extra money to buy all of these gifts you are supposed to buy. Unless of course you have a 'good' job that gives you a 'bonus' every year in which case, screw you, I don't want to talk to you.
The point is that typically I dread this season, except for the copious amounts of whiskey drinking, but this year I am feeling a bit different. I am still experiencing the seasonal depression, mostly because I hate, hate, hate cold weather, but I am starting to enjoy the holiday festivities simply because I get to see Av get excited. I don't think that she really gets what is going on or why, but she knows that Christmas is fun and there is a lot of decorating and a lot of symbols that she is supposed to care about. I am also pretty sure that she knows she is going to get gifts at some point, too. I can honestly say for the first time since I was like, 13, I actually looked forward to getting a Christmas tree this year. Usually Christmas tree day is the worst day of the season. Trees are outrageously expensive, then you have to carry them upstairs and in to your house, leaving a trail of pine needles every where you go, and not just for that day, there are pine needles everywhere for like, three months. Once you get the tree inside there is the pleasurable task of having it fall on your head 56 times while you try to get it to stay in the stand, and the inevitable trip to Family Dollar to get yet another strand of lights because the ones from last year are either missing or broken. I hate Christmas tree day.
That said, this year I was actually kind of looking forward to it. The baby talks about Christmas trees every time we see one, and we really hyped it up for her enjoyment. I even let us get the tree like three weeks earlier than I normally would, just because she was excited. See, I am getting soft.
Here is a shot of her helping to pick out the tree. She really had a good time with the whole thing and it completely eliminated any stress that I may have had seeing how excited she was. I think what makes it funnier for me is that she acts like a little adult all of the time. Like, she was walking around, checking out the trees, talking nonsense like she was trying to imitate me. Then she cried because she didn't want to leave the tree yard, even though it was about six degrees out. Even putting up the tree went a bit more smoothly this year. That is not to say that it didn't fall on my head, because it did, like three times. But I only dropped a few f-bombs and managed not to throw anything against the wall, even after I randomly opened the fridge to grab a beer after one particular head-falling incident and found soy sauce spilled all over everything. In most cases I would have probably had to take a walk to calm down, but I held it together. Even Family Dollar was pretty empty when I had to go in and buy this year's string of lights. Good deal.Decorating the tree has gone on for about three days, as she is pretty much just taking everything off and throwing them around like they are balls. I don't really care about this, although I am pretty sure that she has ingested an unhealthy amount of glitter and artificial ornament paint. It's cool, her body has to be immune to her eating foreign objects at this point, especially after I caught her chewing on the brush end of a paint brush the other day. My life is a constant uphill battle against crap like that.
Now that the tree is up I even find myself looking forward to Christmas morning, just so I can see her get excited at finally getting all of the toys she has been yelling about for months. Yes, I think fatherhood has made me some sort of softy. I don't even get annoyed when she sings, and I hate the sound of children singing. I guess I shouldn't complain, anything that makes the Christmas season more enjoyable is welcomed. I just hope she is always cute and excited on Christmas and doesn't become one of those snotty, pretentious little jerks who complain about their gifts and ask for outrageous things every year. I don't shop at whole foods or drive an Acura, so this should be avoidable, but you never know.
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My late year resolutions are coming along well. I have already had one cooking excursion, which I will share with you later this week once I upload the photos to my computer, and I have been making an effort with the ukulele. The problem that I am having is that I am finding it difficult to keep my high quality, $8 instrument in tune, which according to Pineapple Pete's ukulele instruction website is damning to any potential ukulele master. I think I may need to tighten a few screws.
This song is badass
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