01 December 2008

No rest for the weary.

We're into the frenzied days of December. As a child, I only worried about killing time until Christmas, and that wasn't hard to do, although the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas seemed an eternity. I'd come home from school -- the less planned hours of which generally included heavy loads of holiday crosswords or the perennial favorite, the old "see how many words you can make from 'Merry Christmas'" activity -- and it was time to lie under the artificial tree listening to Christmas music. On many days, my mother was baking something. There were always cookies.

Now, as an adult, there's simply no time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Time isn't measured in hours or days, but in weekends. Since the post-Thanksgiving weekend is a wash, we're left with three weekends, and every weekend has a party invitation if not an acceptance, the semester ending papers and exams demand attention, those of us foolhardy enough to attend the MLA are planning not only a Christmas trip, but also a post-Christmas pre-New Year's itinerary, and we're well aware that when we return there's another semester waiting for prep. Throw children into the mix, and you're looking at one-twelfth of the year completely, utterly, irrevocably gone.

Happy holidays, everyone.

5 comments:

KassyK said...

Happy Holidays! Since I don't celebrate Xmas, for me the time between then and Thanksgiving has always been my favorite of the year:

Hanukkah, my birthday, one of my sisters bday, then Xmas time off and New Years. December is my fave month of the year.

Another perk of being born in Dec? I can say no to lots of parties I don't feel like attending bc I might be celebrating my own bday and no one can get mad.

Its brilliant! :)

Reya Mellicker said...

May the force be with you!

Anonymous said...

Happy Holidays!

Anonymous said...

Yikes. Now I'm both anxious and depressed.

One of my sisters used to teach a workshop called "Unplug the Christmas Machine." It was pretty popular and if she'd wanted, she probably could have made a fortune from it.

Predictably, perhaps, she stopped doing it apparently out of guilt -- she felt hypocritical, because eventually the Machine just broke down her resistance.

Some uber-cool artist needs to do a V for Vendetta-like graphic novel about this, in which a shadowy underground plots to blow up the North Pole or something.

cs said...

KassyK: It's still a super busy time, though, right? Happy upcoming birthday.

Reya: Thanks

MA: Same to you MA. Same to you in your new digs.

JES: It's the old I fought the law and the law won...people look at you funny when you can't come up with copious Christmas gift lists.