STFU!

Gimme a break. Don't let Christmas get to you like that. You are WEAK!

There are a lot of aspects of Christmas I love, and also many I hate. Christmas is a time of hurt and a time of joy.. depends on how much you let it affect you.

Shopping is a bitch. The mall sucks. It sucks year round, but christmas is a little worse because its even more crowded. The frenzy can be contagious and quite draining.. and you wonder why you put yourself through the hell.

What makes you think you can escape the holiday by not celebrating it. Jehova's Witnesses don't have it any easier. It's probably worse.. think about how horrible it could be to be in retail as a jehova's witness.. you are being forced to support a holiday you really don't believe in (although, Jehova's Witnesses are retarded and have no fun.. pity them, I do).

I also think that money is a very very very lame excuse not to give gifts. In the past (and probably in the future) I have used that excuse. But when it comes down to it, it really isn't a valid reason. Having the money means you can take the easy way out and buy some cool gift for the person you care about, and also those that you don't like but feel some weird obligation to give to (like grandma).

Last year some of us took part in a grab bag. No one really put any effort into it, and few people took part in it.. and I recall a few gifts were not randomly assigned. It didn't work well.. and I don't think it would be a good idea to repeat. Secret santas don't work too well either.

This year I will be giving gifts to my immediate family as always (the kind you buy) and for my friends I have something else in mind.. it is also a gift I must purchase, but the value of the gift is not based at all on what it physically is.

Giving gifts to folks you don't want to give to is a whole different thing. I probably won't be giving gifts to a good number of folks I know.. and I do feel bad.. already even, and it's not like I've really put thought into this or have a list made or anything fucked up like that. I'm not exactly organised like that.

Calliander compared the Christmas holiday to Thanksgiving.. another family holiday. In my family, Thanksgiving isn't really a family holiday.. I don't know what it is really.. its turkey day. My family has been celebrating Thanksgiving for not much more than 10 years.. and it really don't involve family beyond the immediate family unit. So, as you could imagine, that doesn't make Thanksgiving that important. Christmas is something that would involve visiting other relatives if they were within a reasonable distance (meaning a flight under 6 hours), although there has been the occasional 20 hour flight to celebrate with relatives.

This leads to Christmas being a sad time. It is the time my family realizes the distance between relatives. My mother's side of the family is so so many thousands of miles away (8000 miles if you fly absolutely direct.. so add on another thousand or more depending on the season), and my dad's side is closer, but still over 3500 miles. Then there is the family even farther away, those that have died. Christmas is hardest on my mom, who has no living parents and two siblings left.

Anyway, I am up too late, yet again.. the hectic final week awaits. And it looks so so so so so so so so cold out. Several inches of snow. I gotta go get some shit out of my car soon, which I don't want to do, but I have to get it before it explodes. Bah. Fucking 22 degrees F out according to the weather.