I have realized something about myself this week and I am not proud of it.
I am not in the Christmas spirit. At all.
This is absolutely against article #2 of my personal creed..."all people must begin Christmas Spiriting the day after Thanksgiving and carry it through until the day before Halloween. You may drop the Christmas Spirit long enough to complain about the tackiness of Halloween, and to be grouchy while you cook a bunch of stuff for Thanksgiving, but then you must bring it back right away."
So, where are you Christmas???
I think I'm a little out of sorts because I hate that I still have Things To Do. I don't like having those, unless they are Things I Want To Do. I don't enjoy doing Things Other People Want To Do, or Things I HAVE To Do.
So, no more plans, yo. I'm done. I will attend the Christmas dinners at both my grandparents' houses. I will go to mass on Christmas morning (not midnight mass this year, because starting something at midnight with six young children is just asking for a drop in Spirit). I will host the Party Of Awesomeness on Christmas night. And that is all, my friend, that is all.
If I feel like baking, I'll bake something. If I feel like looking at more lights or going to more parties or making more crafts or anything else that people do during December, I will. But if I feel like sitting on the couch and reading while my kids slave away on housework, that's what's going down, yo.
Today, I felt like detailing Ninja Truck. I love detailing my car, it's relaxing and I get to look at it and go "Wow, this is gonna' be clean for ten whole minutes!" So I got the kids' junk out of the truck and made them put it away...which took twenty minutes. Then, I spent five hours doing the rest of the work while they played next door. When it was time to leave, they all came out to the truck with arms full of Stuff They Had To Bring. I told them no way, I spent five hours cleaning the truck and they are never allowed to put anything into it again ever.
We went to pick up my mother in law to look at lights and the kids shouted "Guess what, Mimi!? We cleaned the truck for five hours!!!!" At which she cracked up, but for the wrong reason. The right reason would have been the understanding that my children have never done anything for five hours straight except maybe whine. She was laughing because my truck doesn't look clean at all, because of the whole "when you buy a used vehicle, the first time you detail it is more like figuring out how much of the mess is permanent" phenomenon, and as it happens, my truck looks like BP had some oil lines running through it at some point, and didn't do such a great job on keeping them intact. Just sayin.
But, I had a nice relaxing day of cleaning and discovering that it doesn't really matter if I clean Ninja Truck or not, but I still like doing it. Tomorrow it's the house, which I don't enjoy at all, but I will enjoy looking at it with the satisfaction of knowing that it will be clean for an entire five seconds. :::happy sigh::: I can feel the Christmas Spirit returning....
