Happy Freakin' New Year

Happy New year to one & all! I hope your holidays were full of fun & feasting!

I know I'm a little late but things have been a bit, well, chaotic, to say the least.

The holidays went pretty well. Better than I expected, I suppose. Let's just say the madness was spread around rather evenly between families.

In the last episode, I mentioned that we ate herring on Christmas eve. In Polish, we call it "sledzie" & we eat it as a blessing & remembrance of the holiday. (or something like that)

New year's eve we spent with my sisters at the youngest's house with a few friends. We got on Skype & got my uncle & cousins on web cam for a while. It was pretty much seeing who was the drunker group. LOL. We are on astern time & they were on Central. I don't think they stayed up to usher in their own new year, but they were on with us for ours! The rest of the night was pretty quiet & we were home by about 1:30 am. New year's day hubby, dd & myself stayed home & just chilled, veg'd, & pretty much were lazy bums. I stopped over to babcia's to visit as usual, even though we did call her at midnight.

But the day before the new year's eve begins what can only be called an evil curse...

Battling with Babushkas,

Collette

Happy Holidays or Bah Humbug?

Image by HowardLake via Flickr

Well, Thanksgiving is over (WOOHOO!) & the holiday season is in full swing. Except for the fact that it is December 3rd & we have no snow (again, WOOHOO!) as of yet. Yes, they are calling for some flurries & snow showers during the week, but nothing to be worried about. In fact, just the past week has been chilly. We have had temps near 60 & above pretty much all autumn. I am enjoying the hell out of it. As you know, I absolutely hate & dread the winter season. The bitter cold, blizzard-like snow & the incredibly slick & dangerous ice that we deal with here in Michigan makes me want to hibernate until the temps hit 60 once again.

The weather is not the only dreaded thing about this time of year. All the shopping for gifts, finding parking, & pushing & shoving makes it seem as if selfishness has taken over. The news shows people physically fighting over the last popular toy that "my child has to have". Thieves are hiding around every corner watching & waiting until your arms, full of bags & boxes, are emptied into your trunk so they can knock you down to take your car with all the gifts that you worked so hard to save & scrimp for. The usually pleasant salespeople, that have been working many hours with angry customers who can't find what they want, are cranky when you get to them because there's no tag on the item you want & they have to search for a price.

Last, but certainly not least, we come to spending time with the family. Some we see all year long. Some we see during the year for events & get-togethers of sorts. And some come from out of town only a couple of times a year. It seems to me that the ones from out of town are the ones we'd rather see more than some we have closer to us. We are forced to make nice to others because "they are family" or "it's the holidays". Wouldn't it be nice to be able to be honest? So it hurts someone's feelings. I didn't ask to share my holiday with certain people. I would like to enjoy the holidays without any drama or negativity. I want the smile on my face to be genuine. I think if we could just eat & go, I would be very happy! But, it's not to be. I will be one of the few stuck cleaning up & being pushed out of the way so others can have their fun. The funny thing is, I'd rather spend time with my in-laws a during the holidays than my own family. Now you know I'm strange!

Well, I'm really tired because it's late, but I'm going to post this. It's how I feel most of the time during the holidays. The one really good thing about the holidays is having 2 weeks off from work. It's nice to work for a school district!

SO, how do you all REALLY feel about the holidays? MUHAHAHAHA

Hiding Behind My Babushka,

Collette