Getting the kids excited!

I recently shared a post on Facebook, you know the ones with the statistics that are totally made up by someone in Facebook-land, that says decorating early could make you happier. Well, who couldn’t be happier than to put up a tree with lots of twinkling lights reminding you that the holiday season is upon us! Besides, I’m already more than 1/2 done with my Christmas shopping (of course) and I just recently returned from my niece’s farm in Southern Oregon where she had me helping her decorate her new home for the holidays … so I was seriously in the mood!

Dave and I lovingly call our oldest daughter and my father-in-law “The Kids”, since both of them are permanently living with us. (When my youngest kiddo, currently away at college, is home we say “The Family” … and the dogs are “The Boys”.) We’ve been struggling a bit with “happy” at our house due to the lack of daylight hours and just general winter blahs. The minute I put up the tree, my father-in-law’s attitude changed and he told the very next person who called “Merry Christmas!” You may or may not know that he has Alzheimer’s dementia - so in fact this may be the last Christmas he really remembers. If this is the case, why not really make it something worth remembering? Make this season longer and full of Hallmark movies, outings to look at decorated lanes, Christmas concerts, snow in the mountains - but for now we’ll start with a little holiday cheer at home.

There are lots of reasons not to look forward to the holidays - difficulty with family, expectations, loneliness, shopping, cat knocking all the stuff off your tree - whatever your anguish might be. For me, my dad passed right before Thanksgiving and my mom died on my birthday, 4 days before Christmas. My family doesn’t gather, for one reason or another, and so for the most part, with the exception of fabulous friends who sent lovely invites to our little family and a few family members, we are on our own. But, we really did Christmas last year and we intend to do the same this year!! So I say BRING ON THE DECORATIONS! I’m tired of feeling sad and I owe it to my kiddos to make Christmas as magical as possible. Someday we’ll have grandchildren and I don’t wanna blow that by being a Scrooge.

So … to quote my father-in-law … Merry Christmas! (Deal with it!)