I'll be honest, I just don't like the holidays as much as I used to. When I was a child, it was: Visiting Grandparent set number 1 on Christmas eve, pretending to sleep while parents wrap presents once we got home. Then opening presents Christmas morning and carting off to Grandparents set number 2 for dinner. Each Christmas we had 2 dinners, tons of presents, lots of laughing and joking, and visiting family.
Now, I haven't seen half my family in years or months. Everyone is just too busy leading their own lives. I am too, but it's harder for me to get around because I don't know how to drive. I live 30 minutes from every family member and buses don't run in my particular neighborhood on holidays. Or, if it does, very rarely. Nowadays, I have to choose between visiting one side of my family or the other, and it's divided even more than that because some go to their spouse's family's houses.
Any one I choose to go to causes an argument with the family I don't see and the family I do see puts down the other side. On one side of the family, we are so disconnected with each other that we basically just watch tv the entire time. If someone talks, they are immediately hushed. It's an uncomfortable and unnerving day. On the other side of the family, there are 30 or more people and so much going on that you easily feel overwhelmed. Food is spread thin and there tend to be a million conversations going at once. You just can't keep up and no one notices.
It's just not fun like it used to be. Maybe it was because I was a child and didn't notice the conversations, but everyone seemed a lot more caring towards each other. That's my family though.
I also tend to boycott stores and shopping (minus online) right after Halloween. It's like El Nino or a natural disaster. People drive three times crazier than usual, becoming aggressive and possessive of things in the stores. Adults start acting like children and children become wild animals. I only go to the store from October to February to get fresh cranberries to freeze for the following year and only if I've run out of food. Then I tend to go to Wal-fart or King Soopers at 1-4 am just to avoid as many people as possible.
I just don't get the whole attitude commercialism has caused. It's like when a celebrity comes to town. People scream and grab and push. They become a completely different person than what they usually are. I just don't get it. If Albert Einstein came up to me and asked me my opinion on a book, I'd say "well, never read it" or "It's not the best book" or whatever my actual opinion is and not freak out just because I've seen him on tv. Though, I would be interested in what he's doing walking around 56 years after he died.
