Hah, Bumhug

So I was feeling a little bah humbug the other day. I think that as I get older this feeling comes to me more frequently...I would say 'for some reason', but I know the reason. Holidays, while fun and something to look forward to all year long, are just a lot of work sometimes. The workload increases exponentially with every extra family member you have, so with every child...etc. I think, too, that it's a product of growing up in Japan, where, despite Amanda's information to the contrary this year, people do not usually celebrate Thanksgiving...ergo Christmas becomes the one big holiday, and maybe even MORE fun. I sometimes feel that Turkey day #1, with all the trimmings, followed less than 6 weeks later by Turkey day #2, with all the trimmings, just becomes an overload of turkey.

I won't get into the presents issue, because it's impossible to raise the discussion without taking both sides of the issue (What a waste of money! Give it all to the starving Armenians! Presents are an expression of love and they make the day very special! Also, I personally demand presents of every loved one and acquaintance that I possess, so let's not be hypocritical, Susanna!) etc etc. But no one can deny that if you have to buy for more than, like, your boyfriend, it can be a little stressful. But I also ADORE shopping over the holidays, when the stores are all lit up and cozy and you can drink Starbucks while you peruse the merchandise, until your husband calls you from home asking Where are you but not in a nice way and you can hear the boys disemboweling each other in the back ground while the baby screams merrily......

Sigh. I'm so confused.

Lets just say I have to stay on top of my mood sometimes, to ensure the proper level of merriment.

But think about this, oh you imagineers (don't sue me, Disney): What if you could check into a hotel over the holidays? A big, huge, sparkly, Christmassy hotel, pre-decorated the way the way you like, with a Christmas tree in the lobby and the promise of a ready-made turkey on Christmas day? What if the stores we love were around the corner, and when you woke up you could purchase your Starbucks in the lobby of this wonderland while the Kenny G Musak of Tidings and Joy played in the background, and what if afterward, toting said Starbucks, you could walk to the mall (in your fabulous shoes) which was right around the corner from the hotel and then you could shop till you dropped and then come home to the hotel and have a massage while your doting husband waited for you in the bar with a cinnamon appletini??? What about them apples? What is a cinnamon appletini? Also, where are my children in all this?

I know. It was a VERY nice daydream. But waking up Christmas morning, when the work is mostly done and the tree is decorated and the kids are all starry-eyed over their decorated house and their painstakingly wrapped presents is pretty great too. Or we could go crash Moms'.