throwback thurs: christmases

throwback thurs: christmases

this year is going to be different at christmas. last year was different at christmas. and while i do value traditions, sometimes change can be good. 
christmas for 36 years of my life was pretty predictable. at some point, you have to look at your traditions and decide they’re stagnant. i know my mom likes christmas the way she does, but it gets a little overwhelming. there’s so much food to prepare. everyone needs to be doing something. if you aren’t doing it right, prepare to be learned. even though you’ve been doing this for 37 years, somehow i’ve forgotten what it is i’m supposed to do. everything needs to be checked on. for the past few years, we’ve tried suggesting to scale back. maybe not quite so many varieties of food. maybe not so much food. maybe we each bring something, potluck style (tried that, but i was told not to bring potato soup the next year). then there is all the cleaning and dishes. ugh.
trying to keep it laid back just doens’t happen. 
last year, i stayed home. it was perfectly nice. i cooked when i wanted to. i didn’t clean when i didn’t want to. i made a fantastic buche de noel cake that i’ve been wanting to try for 20 year but can’t because OMG christmas cake. stuff happened on my terms and it was great.
15726249_10102146554629671_195428359268536551_n that’ what i like about thanksgiving. i can cook all the thanksgiving food by myself and be ok with it. i will leave the mess on the counter and not care too much. and if other people want to help, that’s fine too. 
but anyway, christmas is changing again this year. instead of buying each other presents off a list of items that we would buy for ourselves anyway, we are going to try to do a trip instead. we’ll each come up with an idea for a trip and then decide which one is the best. we’ll decide at christmas and then take the trip sometime over the next year.
sure, it’s changing. but what is life if you can’t roll with the punches every once in a while? if somehow my parents decide to scale it back and make it laid back at christmas, maybe i’ll consider making the drive to st. charles. especially if they let me bring the buche de noel. 

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