Monday, November 27, 2006

Bah, humbug.


How was everybody's Thanksgiving?

Mine was sort of blah and depressing. I cooked a big dinner, but it was depressing doing it all by myself. I grew up in a big family, and it doesn't seem like a holiday without a million people around. I went to bed at 5:30. Hey, it was dark, so why not?

Friday was blah, too. Todd had some big Black Friday purchases planned, but since he got to the store at 5:15 AM instead of camping there all night, he missed out. (Who in their right mind would camp outside a store to buy a TV or computer? Madness, I tell you.)

Saturday we went to my brother's house three hours away and had dinner with their family and my sister-in-law's parents, and that was fun...I got to get in a tiny bit of quality time with the nieces, which is always great. Marissa is saying so many words now, and is just such a busy little person, and Natalie amazes me with her sharp little mind and sense of humor.

Sunday we went out Christmas shopping all afternoon, and that went quite well--the stores were not busy at all, and I got about 75% of my shopping done.

I went back and forth all weekend about whether to do any holiday decorating and what the extent of it should be--I do this every year. I feel guilty because I hate to decorate, but I feel like I should, especially since this is our first year in our new place. One of the many reasons I hate Christmas.

Yes, this year I am going to be open and honest about it...I hate Christmas. Not the Jesus part--I love Jesus, and the nativity story. I don't even mind buying and wrapping presents. But the rest of it, I hate. I was going to try for a good attitude about it this year, but today's events decided me: Christmas sucks.

In my dithering about whether to decorate or not, I decided to at least start moving the living room around this morning. For the tree to go up, the furniture has to be moved, and even if I decide against putting up the tree, I though it would be good to try a new arrangement.

I started with my big bookshelf, taking off all the breakables first, and stacking them carefully on the dining room table. Then I started making piles of the books.

As I placed the last stack of books on the end of the dining room table, I had a fleeting thought that it was probably too heavy on that end. No sooner did the thought go through my mind than the table tipped and an avalanche of books, pictures, and very breakable breakables went crashing to the floor.

I chipped one teapot, broke the bottom off my very, very favorite teapot, smashed the lid of a heavy Carnival canister, smashed to bits an adorable creamer that I bought this summer, broke a chunk out of a heavy yellow pottery bowl...and the worst thing, I pulverized a tiny teapot that Todd brought me from Taiwan ten years ago, which was one of my most cherished possessions. The two teacups that went with it are mostly okay--one is chipped. But I don't think the teapot is salvageable at all.

I had to suppress the instinct to go sit in the corner and rock myself until the shaking stopped. And you know whose fault it is?

It's Christmas's fault. Yep, it is. Maybe I'll go to my corner and not come out till January 2.

8 comments:

Colleen said...

Sorry to hear about breaking the breakables!! And sorry that it put you off even more! Do you like seeing the decorations after they're up? If not, then why bother? I only put them up because I enjoy seeing them up. Hope the rest of the week is better!

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to hear about your breakage. I know you can't replace the items but was enough broken that you can file an insurance claim and maybe try to rebuild? Just a thought.

Your story of moving things reminds me of Christmas when I was a kid. We lived in a single-wide mobile home so there wasn't a lot of room and I remember my mom cussing up a storm every Xmas because of all of the re-arranging she had to do to put up a tree for us kids. She also had a bookcase filled with "breakables" and inevitably something would get broken or she'd get so peeved that she'd start throwing things.

I say it every year-- I'd love to be able to go away some place-- maybe Jamaica or the Bahamas-- from November 1 until January 1 and skip all of the holidays.

Jill said...

Awww! I'm sorry. I hate when you see something happening but can't react fast enough to stop it. :-( That stinks. :-( I hope today went better.

Anonymous said...

maybe a trip to recollections will cheer you up????

Mimi said...

Oooh, I'm so sorry the breakables got broken.

Mackey said...

Janelle - I am SO glad you posted on my blog! I have been thinking of you lately and it was great to see your name!

I am so terribly sorry about all your breakables! That is just too too terrible. Sometimes the re-arranging just isn't worth all the effort - but I do it anyway because I love the beauty when it's finished. But I take FOREVER to get it up so I don't stress as badly as I used to!! Still - I'm very very sorry!!

On another note - LOVELOVELOVE your Fiskars things each and every time I see them!!! I'm a Fiskateer now and the main reason I wanted to be was because of your wonderful artwork each month in Paper Crafts. HURRAY for you!!!! I'm so inspired!

No Hassle Loans said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Janelle said...

Hi, B! I owe you an e-mail. I didn't break enough for an insurance claim, and the value was almost nothing...except the sentimental value. Bahamas for a month sounds awesome--I'll meet you there. ;-)

Beth, I'm up for Recollections any old time! Call me!

Mackey, I was so happy to find your blog at 2Peas...it's been ages and ages since I've chatted with you. Thanks for the compliment--that is so awesome that you're a Fiskateer now! They have some wonderful Cloud 9 and Heidi G stuff now.

Thanks for all the pats on the back--today is better. I am going to move the furniture tonight and put up the darn tree...we have a few visitors coming in the next few days and it would be nice to have a holiday house. Hopefully I can manage to keep from breaking anything else.