Shut up! You know you missed me!

WOW!
It's been a while. I bet you were SICK of seeing that blinking Merry Christmas crap!
I hope you all had wonderful holidays.
I hope Santa brought you some good stuff but more importantly, I hope you all got to spend the time with loved ones whether it be family, friends or yourself.

I spent my holidays with family mostly. I have a large family and it's a requirement. We all live close to each other and we are required to spend our holidays together.
It's an odd thing, though. We all feel like we do this for our mother. We feel like if we didn't plan Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years dinners, it would hurt our mother.
We act as if we'd stop doing these things if Mom was no longer with us. Hmm...

Anyway....
I know some of you spent the holidays alone.
Some people prefer it and some do it because they have no choice.
There is no reason not to make it special even if you are alone.
I had every intention of spending New Year's Eve alone.
Back when I had "someone special" we had a romantic tradition on that particular night but now that I'm alone, I don't want to spend that evening pretending that it's ok that the one I use to spend the holiday with turned out to be Mr. Wrong and made me want to erase the last 3 yrs and start all over.
So, I purposely don't seek out New Year's Eve plans.
This year, I went to Central Market and bought a great frozen lasagna, ice cream, a bottle of Asti, Boursin cheese and crackers and pancake makings for the next morning.
I had movies, a plan to watch the symphony on PBS, etc...
I was good with my decision.
I don't know why but people are aghast if you spend New Year's Eve alone. You're either pitied or ridiculed. Some people fear it and will do ANYTHING so as not to be alone.
I welcomed it. I jokingly refered to it as "wallowing in self pity" for New Year's Eve but I really wanted to sit home alone, with my dogs.
That afternoon, my sister called and invited me over to play Texas Hold 'Em.
I knew that the holidays were especially rough on my sister and her husband after losing my nephew and I just couldn't turn them down.
Besides, I had JUST learned how to play Texas Hold 'Em and was anxious to play again.
So, although I didn't spend the evening alone, I could have and would have been ok.

I was off work for several days. It was AMAZING. I could SO get used to not working.
I was also offline for those days and I missed out on a LOT of blogging; reading and writing.
I'm trying to catch up on my favorite blogs but it's difficult.
There was some fun afoot at Snooze Button Dreams and it will take me two weeks to catch up on This Blog is Full of Crap. Laurence Simon updates that bad boy every 5 minutes!
Sheila has been beautifully prolific as usual.
These cats alone will keep me busy for a while.

So, yeah, I'm back and I hope this year brings -for me- better blogging, better writing and a smidge of happiness.

Posted by De at January 3, 2006 01:42 PM | TrackBack