Happy Christmas Eve
Dec. 24th, 2013 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lliiraI haven't been able to be with my family for years, and I'm sad about that, but at the same time:
1) I am not hungry. There was never enough food at my grandparents' because as soon as food was bought, my eldest uncle would eat it. I didn't work up the guts to tell my mom I was constantly hungry over Christmas until my 20s. Then we'd get mostly crackers and granola bars because we could hide them in our rooms. Not very festive.
2) I am not cold. This isn't a comparison between Florida and places north in December (Virginia, to be precise); I like winter. When my grandparents moved from their large, beautiful home to a little ranch/apartment whatsit in a retirement community, everyone had to find a place to stay. The place my mom and I always got was the house of one of my grandparents' friends, who always went to Germany over Christmas to see his daughter. It was very kind of him to let us use his home. However, he was such an extreme environmentalist that he didn't allow the heat to be turned above 60. It snowed every Christmas I spent there. One year, it was so cold in that house that I threw up.
3) I am not sick. When I was a kid, I rarely got sick over Christmas. Then, in my teens, I started to get sick often over Christmas. By my 20s, I got sick every single year. That doesn't happen any more.
4) I love (most of) my family, but they are neurotic as hell, at least as a group. Seeing them was never a vacation.
5) My cousin has three small boys. My uncle has one small boy and one baby girl. I am not fond of small children, though (because?) they are fond of me, and tend to latch onto me.
6) With just the two of us, and a very good holiday sale at Publix, my husband and I were able to buy an expensive cut of meat. It will be all ours. We will have leftovers. Yes, this is the "I am not hungry" thing again. Most people seem to associate Christmas with being overfull. I associate it with being constantly hungry.
7) I don't have to deal with my mother's husband while he freaks out at me because someone started paying attention to me rather than him.
8) I am a night person. Everyone else in my family is either a morning person or downs gallons of grossly strong, bitter coffee throughout the day to keep them standing when they don't get enough sleep over the holidays, and no one ever gets enough sleep over the holidays because the morning persons run everything and want people to be completely awake, showered, and ready to do things at 7 AM.
9) I am about to listen to Loreena McKennit Christmas music while writing.
1) I am not hungry. There was never enough food at my grandparents' because as soon as food was bought, my eldest uncle would eat it. I didn't work up the guts to tell my mom I was constantly hungry over Christmas until my 20s. Then we'd get mostly crackers and granola bars because we could hide them in our rooms. Not very festive.
2) I am not cold. This isn't a comparison between Florida and places north in December (Virginia, to be precise); I like winter. When my grandparents moved from their large, beautiful home to a little ranch/apartment whatsit in a retirement community, everyone had to find a place to stay. The place my mom and I always got was the house of one of my grandparents' friends, who always went to Germany over Christmas to see his daughter. It was very kind of him to let us use his home. However, he was such an extreme environmentalist that he didn't allow the heat to be turned above 60. It snowed every Christmas I spent there. One year, it was so cold in that house that I threw up.
3) I am not sick. When I was a kid, I rarely got sick over Christmas. Then, in my teens, I started to get sick often over Christmas. By my 20s, I got sick every single year. That doesn't happen any more.
4) I love (most of) my family, but they are neurotic as hell, at least as a group. Seeing them was never a vacation.
5) My cousin has three small boys. My uncle has one small boy and one baby girl. I am not fond of small children, though (because?) they are fond of me, and tend to latch onto me.
6) With just the two of us, and a very good holiday sale at Publix, my husband and I were able to buy an expensive cut of meat. It will be all ours. We will have leftovers. Yes, this is the "I am not hungry" thing again. Most people seem to associate Christmas with being overfull. I associate it with being constantly hungry.
7) I don't have to deal with my mother's husband while he freaks out at me because someone started paying attention to me rather than him.
8) I am a night person. Everyone else in my family is either a morning person or downs gallons of grossly strong, bitter coffee throughout the day to keep them standing when they don't get enough sleep over the holidays, and no one ever gets enough sleep over the holidays because the morning persons run everything and want people to be completely awake, showered, and ready to do things at 7 AM.
9) I am about to listen to Loreena McKennit Christmas music while writing.
no subject
Date: 2013-12-25 02:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-27 05:26 pm (UTC)