You may
call me a Grinch, a grumbler, or a grouch, but I am not a fan of the Holiday
season. I am perfectly OK with that fact. I get far too stressed out every year. I have a feeling that if I kept track of my
blood pressure on a regular basis, there would be a dramatic spike from the
middle of November through the end of the year, every year.
Every
time, money is scarce, and yet the number of things that I need to spend money
on seems to increase exponentially during the holiday season (I need to find a
way to switch my annual car registration to sometime in summer, so it stops
falling on the week before x-mas). Of
course, this always makes things stressful; a lack of money when you need it
has got to be one of the most nerve-racking aspects of our society. Maybe it’s the primary reason that I’m such a
Scrooge; money is tight and that paints the rest of life in a stressed-out
light.
However,
I always manage to get by; in hindsight money was never quite as tight as I usually
assume it is. So my dislike of the
holidays can’t be solely blamed on that.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there’s so much less
sunlight to work with.
The sun has barely risen when I
drive to work in the morning and it’s in the process of setting by the time I
head home. I enjoy my time outdoors, I
love going in to the hills by myself and finding some time away from everything
else. With the lack of sunlight, there
are precious few opportunities to do that.
When I can’t do the things I love, I get grumpy.
Then
again, maybe that’s not it at all. Maybe
my problem with the holidays these past few years stems from the seemingly
inevitable defeat of the Packers at the hands of an NFC West team in the
playoffs. The way the last few years
have gone, I would not be shocked at all if the Packers lose to the Cardinals
this year, let alone the Seahawks.
As much
as these and a myriad of other tiny things tend to get on my nerves during the
holiday season, the fact that so many people I care about are always in town
and available to spend time with does make it all worth it. I say this so that you all know that at times
I may seem grumpy and I may complain about this time of the year, but despite
my Grinch like attitude, I love every one of you and I wish you all the best
time of your life to this point, and the hope that it gets even better from
here on out.
One
more thing: x-mas gift-shopping this year has been troublesome, therefore for
most of my readers, in place of a purchased gift, I’m offering you something
else. I love to cook, and many of you
apparently enjoy my cooking. So in lieu
of a purchased gift this year, I offer each of you a recipe of mine. I’ve never written most of them down, I just
keep them in my head. Sometime this week
though, I’m going to type up all the recipes of mine that I can think of, along
with detailed instructions. Contact me
to let me know which one you want, and I’ll get it to you. When I have a list of all of them, I’ll post
it in the comments section for this post on Facebook.
Also, if you love the sound of one
or more of the recipes, but aren’t much of a cook yourself, I promise to have
you over for dinner at some point in the next year, where I plan on coming up
with a number of new recipes. My goal
for next year is going to be coming up with at least one new recipe a month,
and I’m going to be focusing on my favorite two types of food; Soul food and
French food… I may even try to combine them at some point… Southern Fried
Chicken Cordon Bleu anyone?
Enjoy! Happy Holidays! Also, I sincerely hope that all of your
football teams lose, unless you are a fan of the Packers, like a sane person
should be…
