Saturday, December 11, 2010

Where do I find this holiday spirit?

I just can’t seem to find the holiday spirit.  Usually I have my tree up right after Thanksgiving and I am outside freezing my ass off hanging lights on my roof.  I usually love pulling out all my decorations and setting them up around the house.  Unwrapping each ornament and remembering why I love it so much.  I collect rocking horse ornaments and I have a series that spans 16 years. When I pull them out of the ornament tote, I carefully line them up in order of year, until all 16 are displayed.  Then I evenly hang them on the tree.

I am not religious and I only celebrate Christmas secularly, as a time when my family gets together and laugh and just have a great time. My mother loves to decorate and has decorations for every single holiday and I am my mother’s daughter.  I usually love everything about this time of year.  I love the lights on the houses lighting up the cold nights. The smell of holiday goodies baking.  Getting together with friends from out of town who I haven’t seen all year.

This year, it is two weeks before Christmas and I don’t have a SINGLE decoration up. Nothing, nada, zilch. 

Part of the reason is because after 3 years, I am single this Christmas. I don’t have someone special I am shopping for.  I don’t have someone to share all the memories with of decorating the tree and hanging lights.  I am not out hunting for the “perfect gift”. The gift that once purchased I would be so excited for him to open and hardly be able to wait until Christmas day.

Even if I had someone special to shop for, I have no extra money to really be shopping with. At work we are required to take furloughs (mandatory unpaid days off). My budget was already tight and with the cut in pay it has just made it even tighter. I can pay all my bills, I just don’t have a lot of extra spending. Okay I don’t have any extra spending money.

But this weekend I am determined to get into the holiday spirit! I WILL put up my tree and depending on the weather I WILL hang my Christmas lights.  I am going to fake it until I feel that holiday spirit tingle!

2 comments:

Sara Strand said...

OK- so one of my blogger friends is apparently experience in the online dating. And she commented on my blog for you to email her. So since I couldn't find your email addy which is lost in my inbox, I'm sending you hers. It is: prettylittlereckless@gmail.com and her name is Amy. She's fabulous and awesome. She had tips for you and stuff.

OK- so yes. Get your stuff out! And you know what? Maybe you should call your local Salvation Army or something and see if they have one of those thigns where you shop for one kid. They give you a list of likes/wants. I did that when I was single and I absolutely loved it. Now we shop for a family and it's just as fun. They are THRILLED to even get one thing- so that might put you in the mood AND you'll be doing something awesome for someone else. :)

Lin said...

I'm totally there with you on the money thing. We havent had mandatory furloughs yet but it's hard with just my income. I hope you find the christmas spirit soon & if you dont I wouldnt worry too much about it. Just put your tree up, maybe a few decorations, that's what we did.

 
The Perkster - Ramblings of a hungry fat girl. Design by Exotic Mommie. Illustraion By DaPino