chipping away at the holiday
December 23, 2005, 6:28 A.M.

Yesterday was a kind of strange day. Somewhere between a relaxing day off, and a bustling Christmas prep day.

Spouse came home hungry in the morning, so I made a hot breakfast of bacon and eggs, toast and juice. And after he went to bed, I cleaned up the kitchen, worked on getting the laundry caught up, got a little beading and reading in, washed up all the serving pieces and dishes for Saturday--

And made my THIRD batch of Spritz cookies. These, he's under orders not to touch until Saturday. But after all the baking I've done this past month, I will be good god damned if I have no cookies to offer my guests. The Christmas cookie consumption around here is just insane!

It's not that I am compulsive about cleaning for company, but I'm trying to time a lot of it out so I only have to do it once. There is no sense killing myself over the bathroom on Friday when Spouse will have it trashed again in the morning. Same with vacuuming, or washing the kitchen floor when it's going to be warm and rainy and muddy. So I'm taking a sort of clean as you go--slash--wait till the last minute approach. If a few small things get left undone, it isn't the end of the world. These are people who love us, and will forgive minor imperfections.

That's kind of my advice to the perfectionists who ruin Christmas for themselves (and for others, too--Hi, Mom!) with obsessive cleaning and decorating and cooking: Next year, declare a scientific experiment, do 50% of what you usually do, and see how it turns out. I'm willing to bet that your family and friends don't even notice the difference, unless they comment on "how relaxed you are this year".

Especially if I have to put up that huge "tower of gifts" decoration thing that E gave me a few years ago. And I do. Spouse required a detailed explanation of exactly why we had to use the snowman dishes, and put out all the decorations E. has given me. And I still don't think he quite understood. So I patted his hand, looked him in the eye and said "We love E. This will make her happy. End of story." THAT, he seemed to understand. He's a little sweet on his sister-in-law, so he'll put up with it.

Maybe the fact that he gave me two years off from the holiday rat race by taking me to LV has left me rested, and ready to take a crack at the holiday. I've always felt that it be better if Christmas came but twice a decade, instead of once a year, so I guess this is just the year. It's never going to come naturally to me, but all I can do is try, and sometimes I'm more or less successful.

Merry Christmas from whyme, Spouse, and Raji, and may Dame Fortune smile on you and those you hold dear.