ho ho ho, I suppose

I started to say it just doesn’t seem like Christmas – but it never seems like Christmas. Since I didn’t grow up keeping Christmas, thanks to the Weird Religion, this time of the year I always feel like the Imposter From Another Planet. Christmas has no religious/spiritual/whatever significance to me – well, other than a little residual guilt from participating in a holiday that I was raised to not participate in – so it’s really just about the lights and vacation time and a few presents and of course freezing to death in my inlaws’ house while being tortured by endless games of Rook, as Baker B eats too much sugar, overdoses on his family, and has a meltdown.

We’ve always spent Christmas with Baker B’s family and Thanksgiving with mine, which worked out very well until the Weird Religion decided a number of years ago that Christmas is actually okay after all and not the least bit evil so hey, go ahead and celebrate with the pagans! Still we kept with our divsion of holidays tradition because it was way easier than trying to figure out where to go when.

So I guess my point is that Christmas confuses me. What I seem to enjoy the most is our colored tacky lights that I string up all over the ceiling beams, and the pretty lights and weird trendy shopfronts in Blowing Rock, and the days off. And spending money on myself with a minimum of guilt (even though we are hemorrhaging money this time of year) because Baker B and I don’t even try to get things for each other – we just get what we want for ourselves. Usually it’s CDs for him. Last year I got a Daytimer cover for myself, which was an excellent choice as I’m still pleased a year later with it. One year I got a shortwave radio. One year a multiuse Swiss Army knife. One year it was my Lomo camera.

But I am rambling. This year we said we were going to Charleston at Christmas. We figured we’d drop in on his family – who we see pretty often, for the most part – and then we’d go to Charleston. Relax, drink good beer, eat cheap shrimp, go to the beach, and walk fifty gazillion miles. I even checked out hotel deals in the historic district, and duuuuude, you can get a hotel downtown for $70 a night. Of course, you can get the Red Roof Inn on Mt. Pleasant for $50 a night this time of the year so we would have ended up there anyhow, but STILL. I’m thinking I’m a little disappointed.

We backed out because of the kittens – they are still too little to feel comfortable about leaving them alone for two or three nights – and because Baker B’s niece is coming for Christmas, which we weren’t expecting at all. With her husband and the unbearably adorable Baby Claire, and since they live in Baltimore and we don’t ordinarily see very much of them, of course we can’t waltz off to Charleston now.

I’m really liking the idea of a new tradition, though – me and Baker B, on our own in Charleston. Maybe next year.

Since we don’t want to leave the kittens alone for too long, we’re planning a kind of odd trip. I need to go see my parents too, and I really really really want some days off that are just ME time, for relaxation and unwinding and NOT for vacuuming my parents house and writing their bills. SO. Tomorrow we are going to Morganton to Baker B’s mom’s house. His family’s Christmas party is tomorrow night – the extended family that we mostly only see once a year, so we need to go. Even though it seems like we just went to that a couple of months ago. Then I’ll come back up here tomorrow night to kitten sit. Tuesday morning I’ll drive back down to M’ton, and later in the day I’ll drive on to Asheville to my parents. Then Wednesday I’ll either come directly back home, or go through M’ton to pick up Baker B, depending on whether we take both cars or one car. He’ll spend both nights in M’ton. That way the kittens only spend one night alone, and I don’t spend ANY nights in M’ton, which is a good thing. There are too many people and only one shower, although I’ll bet Baker B’s niece and husband and baby will get a motel. Which will horrify his mom. Because we’re family, and family shouldn’t mind sleeping on couches and having cold showers!!

OH, and when I called my parents tonight to tell them I’d be there Thursday evening, my father tells me he hasn’t heard anything from my brother about having Christmas dinner with them, so maybe I can pick up something for dinner on my way up there. I’m not sure exactly WHAT I’m supposed to pick up, since – IT’S CHRISTMAS AND EVERTHING IS CLOSED, but whatever!!!  I actually did find myself being very peeved about this – I’m going to be in Morganton tomorrow, everything will close at four or so (at the latest) and NOTHING will be open on Christmas day. How can I pick UP something??? Besides that, I would bet good money that my brother is just assuming they will have dinner with them. That’s what they do every year – why would it suddenly change?? It’s like Thanksgiving – dinner is a given and they aren’t sending out engraved invitations.

After being peeved for awhile, I came up with a cunning plan. I’ll go to the store tomorrow before it closes (with everyone else in town, but that’s OKAY) and get one of those pizza crusts that doesn’t have to be frozen, along with some toppings and cheese, and I’ll cart that up there. Then if my brother DOES have them over for dinner, I can just leave the pizza fixings there for future use. If not, we’ll have pizza for dinner.

Oh, oh, oh, and of course we did not get the french drain or the wall patching done today because it POURED rain all night long and the ditch was full of water. So we’ve got to try and do that before we leave tomorrow. So we won’t get down there until pretty late in the day. We’ve got to get it done before Jan. 2 so we can close on time and get our cheap rate.  

Next year I am SO going to Charleston.