I am such a Grinch this year.
I cannot seem to find my Christmas Spirit anywhere! I LOVE Christmas. Well, I usually do – but this year I’m very indifferent. I’m feeling blah. I feel like I’m just going through the motions for the sake of my kids. I usually start getting excited the week of Thanksgiving and it lasts until New Years. I love the holidays and all they entail – the decorating, baking, shopping, wrapping, parties, snow, lights, and of course the MUSIC. But none of those things are doing it for me this year. I can’t seem to get out of my funk.
We celebrate what we believe to be the true meaning of Christmas – which is the birth of Jesus Christ. To us, Christmas is more than just buying as many presents as you can. Although I am thinking about the birth of our Savior this year, I still can’t seem to get that Christmas-y feeling. I’m not unhappy, I’m just missing that holiday excitement.
We are having a bit of a “busy” season in life. We are in the middle of a big construction project on our house which has been monopolizing my time. Plus, I got summonsed for jury duty for the month of December, so either of those could easily be the reason for my holiday buzz-kill. Also, we don’t have any snow. It doesn’t quite have that magical feeling when it’s brown outside, does it? And we all passed around a cold, we had unexpected baby bunnies to deal with, and someone accessed our bank debit card and made a fraudulent purchase. All these events added to my stress… but when is the holiday season not busy and stressful? I mean, I can’t exactly blame my scrooge-like stupor completely on my circumstances. I need an attitude adjustment.
I haven’t even done Christmas cards yet, and I don’t know if I will. This would be the first year EVER that I do not send cards. Most years I have them ready to send the day after Thanksgiving including pictures, a newsletter, and stamped with that year’s cutest Christmas postage stamps.
I honestly don’t know if I’m just extra busy and stressed so I haven’t had the time to get excited yet, or if something else is at the root of my problem – but all I feel like doing is saying bah humbug.
I’ve done the shopping the baking and the wrapping. I’ve drank the eggnog. I trimmed the tree. I have sung the carols. I watched the Hallmark movies. I set up the nativity. All to no avail. I’m missing out on the magic of the season. I can’t find my spark. I’m still thankful, I’m still happy, I’m still enjoying my family… but I’m not feeling that thing. I’m missing that special magical feeling. I feel like I need my heart to grow three sizes like it does in Dr. Seuss’s ‘The Grinch’.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can find my Christmas Spirit? Or am I destined to be a grinch this season?