Advent
Tuesday, December 5
I remember Advent as lasting…FORREEEEEVVVERRRRRRR. Interminable. Growing up we had Advent calendars, and it was FOREVER to wait to open up the next window. My little sister used to cheat. She would open up windows and then try to shut them again, like, what, nobody was going to notice?
Now I barely have enough time to say the word “Advent” before the entire month of December has rushed by in one giant WHOOSH!
People already have their lights up; their atrocious oversized, blow up Santas, Frosties, and Rudolfs inflated; and their trees decorated by Thanksgiving. Overly efficient people who have the same DNA as Martha Stewart, no doubt. I hate them, one and all. It only makes me think how behind the power curve I am.
I seriously considered boycotting Christmas all together this year. The boys are going to go visit their father for the entire Christmas Break. I am just not in the mood. I don’t want to bake cookies, I don’t feel like doing Christmas cards, the thought of putting up a tree and decorating it makes me want to shoot myself. Uggh. What is the point?
I have done some Christmas shopping. I used to be much more efficient. I used to buy gifts throughout the year as I spotted them or they went on sale or I saw something I thought someone would like. I don’t do that as much anymore. For one thing, as kids get older, their tastes change more drastically and they want increasingly more expensive items.
I made the mistake of getting Wintersong, Sarah McLachlan’s latest Christmas CD. Don’t get me wrong: I love it! But it might not be the wisest musical choice for me at this point in time. I popped the CD in as soon as I got in my car this morning, and I wasn’t out of the driveway before my eyes started to mist up. I was bawling like a baby by the time I got to the highway. Sarah McLachlan always makes me cry, but add her plaintive voice to traditional Christmas songs (knowing my kids won’t be here for the holidays), and it was like the Hoover Dam breaking across the Interstate. Just call me a masochist. I wish I could write the way Sarah McLachlan sings. It’s not so much that her voice makes me cry, as that it moves me so deeply. And then I cry.
It’s like agreeing to watch a Hallmark Hall of Fame special with my mother. It is not enough that the sappy special invariably moves me to tears, but every single frigging Hallmark card commercial (and there are a LOT of them during the course of the movie!) makes me cry. Even if I have seen them umpteen times before. It is ridiculous!
I am ridiculous.
I wish I had an Advent calendar. I LOVE Advent calendars. When we were little our godfather’s wife used to send us one every year. It was the first sign that Christmas was coming, and I really enjoyed opening the little windows every day. In anticipation.
Advent literally means “coming to.” (Five years of Latin have to be worth something!) Actually, Advent comes from the Latin “Adventus Redemptoris,” which means the “Coming of the Redeemer,” or the “Coming of the Savior.” Thus, it has a dual, or nuanced meaning, for Christians. Not only is it the remembrance, the celebration of Jesus’ birthday (the First Coming) that we are looking forward to, but anticipation of His return (the Second Coming) as well. Very clever! The Alpha and the Omega. “As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be….” He was, He is, and He will be.
On a more practical level, there is a HUGE difference between anticipation, waiting, and expectation for Christmas, the holiday, and the modern anxiety, stress, and worry for Christmas, the phenomenon. We are expected to produce, in 21st century America, THE Christmas experience. Wow those neighbors with all our sparkling lights and tacky decorations! Send out those amazing family photo Christmas cards and newsletters! Buy and wrap mounds of presents that put us into debt for months on end. Bake massive amounts of cookies and breads and bars and treats that we really don’t need to begin with. And how does all this fit in with the coming of the Savior…? I’m not really sure.
My mother bought a Christmas tree the other day. We still have to bring it into the house and decorate it. Merely getting it into the stand and set up exactly the way she wants it is enough to drive one to drink. She has marked what she has decided is the “front” of the tree. She had my younger son twirl the tree around until she could “find” the front.
I am hoping I don’t really have to do anything to the bottom of the tree to get it to fit in the tree stand. Last year I had to saw off bottom branches and trim the trunk a bit. With a saw. Several times over actually. To get it to fit in the damned tree stand. I think we went through several tree stands, too. One was too small. One was too big. One was defective; the legs wouldn’t fit into the slots right and the stand was unbalanced. The tree came in the house. The tree went back outside the house. The tree went back inside the house. My mother had a bag she’d bought to go over the tree, specifically so no needles (well, the fewest possible, anyway) would drop onto the carpet. This was not just some Hefty bag she had cut a hole in or something. No, this was an official tree bag. She bought it specifically for this purpose. I mean, I didn’t even know they made things like that. I would have just used a vacuum cleaner to sweep up errant needles. Silly me!
The bringing in of the Christmas tree was NOT a happy family bonding activity. I think I was about ready to cancel Christmas by the time we got the tree finally set up the way she wanted it.
“I wish I had a river, I could skate away on….”
Saturday, December 9, 2006
I bought an Advent calendar today. Never mind that it is already December 9th, and I have missed the first eight days of December. I can open windows retroactively. No problem.
I decided that it is just not Advent without an Advent calendar. Naysayers and pooh-poohists, be damned! If I want an Advent calendar, I’ll get one, goshdarnit! And I will open the windows each day. And be happy. If others decide they want to open windows, too, they will just have to get in line and take turns.
Advent. It’s not just a time of waiting, it’s an adventure!
I remember Advent as lasting…FORREEEEEVVVERRRRRRR. Interminable. Growing up we had Advent calendars, and it was FOREVER to wait to open up the next window. My little sister used to cheat. She would open up windows and then try to shut them again, like, what, nobody was going to notice?
Now I barely have enough time to say the word “Advent” before the entire month of December has rushed by in one giant WHOOSH!
People already have their lights up; their atrocious oversized, blow up Santas, Frosties, and Rudolfs inflated; and their trees decorated by Thanksgiving. Overly efficient people who have the same DNA as Martha Stewart, no doubt. I hate them, one and all. It only makes me think how behind the power curve I am.
I seriously considered boycotting Christmas all together this year. The boys are going to go visit their father for the entire Christmas Break. I am just not in the mood. I don’t want to bake cookies, I don’t feel like doing Christmas cards, the thought of putting up a tree and decorating it makes me want to shoot myself. Uggh. What is the point?
I have done some Christmas shopping. I used to be much more efficient. I used to buy gifts throughout the year as I spotted them or they went on sale or I saw something I thought someone would like. I don’t do that as much anymore. For one thing, as kids get older, their tastes change more drastically and they want increasingly more expensive items.
I made the mistake of getting Wintersong, Sarah McLachlan’s latest Christmas CD. Don’t get me wrong: I love it! But it might not be the wisest musical choice for me at this point in time. I popped the CD in as soon as I got in my car this morning, and I wasn’t out of the driveway before my eyes started to mist up. I was bawling like a baby by the time I got to the highway. Sarah McLachlan always makes me cry, but add her plaintive voice to traditional Christmas songs (knowing my kids won’t be here for the holidays), and it was like the Hoover Dam breaking across the Interstate. Just call me a masochist. I wish I could write the way Sarah McLachlan sings. It’s not so much that her voice makes me cry, as that it moves me so deeply. And then I cry.
It’s like agreeing to watch a Hallmark Hall of Fame special with my mother. It is not enough that the sappy special invariably moves me to tears, but every single frigging Hallmark card commercial (and there are a LOT of them during the course of the movie!) makes me cry. Even if I have seen them umpteen times before. It is ridiculous!
I am ridiculous.
I wish I had an Advent calendar. I LOVE Advent calendars. When we were little our godfather’s wife used to send us one every year. It was the first sign that Christmas was coming, and I really enjoyed opening the little windows every day. In anticipation.
Advent literally means “coming to.” (Five years of Latin have to be worth something!) Actually, Advent comes from the Latin “Adventus Redemptoris,” which means the “Coming of the Redeemer,” or the “Coming of the Savior.” Thus, it has a dual, or nuanced meaning, for Christians. Not only is it the remembrance, the celebration of Jesus’ birthday (the First Coming) that we are looking forward to, but anticipation of His return (the Second Coming) as well. Very clever! The Alpha and the Omega. “As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be….” He was, He is, and He will be.
On a more practical level, there is a HUGE difference between anticipation, waiting, and expectation for Christmas, the holiday, and the modern anxiety, stress, and worry for Christmas, the phenomenon. We are expected to produce, in 21st century America, THE Christmas experience. Wow those neighbors with all our sparkling lights and tacky decorations! Send out those amazing family photo Christmas cards and newsletters! Buy and wrap mounds of presents that put us into debt for months on end. Bake massive amounts of cookies and breads and bars and treats that we really don’t need to begin with. And how does all this fit in with the coming of the Savior…? I’m not really sure.
My mother bought a Christmas tree the other day. We still have to bring it into the house and decorate it. Merely getting it into the stand and set up exactly the way she wants it is enough to drive one to drink. She has marked what she has decided is the “front” of the tree. She had my younger son twirl the tree around until she could “find” the front.
I am hoping I don’t really have to do anything to the bottom of the tree to get it to fit in the tree stand. Last year I had to saw off bottom branches and trim the trunk a bit. With a saw. Several times over actually. To get it to fit in the damned tree stand. I think we went through several tree stands, too. One was too small. One was too big. One was defective; the legs wouldn’t fit into the slots right and the stand was unbalanced. The tree came in the house. The tree went back outside the house. The tree went back inside the house. My mother had a bag she’d bought to go over the tree, specifically so no needles (well, the fewest possible, anyway) would drop onto the carpet. This was not just some Hefty bag she had cut a hole in or something. No, this was an official tree bag. She bought it specifically for this purpose. I mean, I didn’t even know they made things like that. I would have just used a vacuum cleaner to sweep up errant needles. Silly me!
The bringing in of the Christmas tree was NOT a happy family bonding activity. I think I was about ready to cancel Christmas by the time we got the tree finally set up the way she wanted it.
“I wish I had a river, I could skate away on….”
Saturday, December 9, 2006
I bought an Advent calendar today. Never mind that it is already December 9th, and I have missed the first eight days of December. I can open windows retroactively. No problem.
I decided that it is just not Advent without an Advent calendar. Naysayers and pooh-poohists, be damned! If I want an Advent calendar, I’ll get one, goshdarnit! And I will open the windows each day. And be happy. If others decide they want to open windows, too, they will just have to get in line and take turns.
Advent. It’s not just a time of waiting, it’s an adventure!
posted by delta at 11:55 AM
2 Comments:
I think you should make this your Christmas and use the opportunity of no boyish obligations, to pick and choose the traditions you want. Create your own way of celebrating. Then next year when the pressure starts building you will be more clear about what elements truly add value for you.
But that's just me.
I have been jettisoning more and more "traditions" in favor of what we like to do - which means we do decorate a tree, because we find that fun, but H just brings any old tree home and it will be fine. I did order christmas cards, but I used a casual but cute photo of the boys at the zoo - to which my mil will sniff in disapproval. I think you should do what makes you happy and try to relax. And we should go out drinking one night, after your boys are gone. I'll drive up to you and we can go to the Bistro for buffalo bites....
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