The Broad Running Broad

It’s here.

I have a firm rule that all Christmas shopping or about 90% of it has to be done before Black Friday, since 1.) December is already busy enough with my birthday and traveling, so if I tried to wait until after Thanksgiving to start shopping I’d be cutting off my nose in spite of my face to get everything done and 2.) I want to only savor the holiday magic.

However, if you thought savoring the holiday magic just meant moseying around my apartment in fuzzy pajamas sipping on hot cocoa and watching a Hallmark movie marathon, you’re definitely a new Reader-Friend.

The Yuletide Maniac is in full swing over here.

We put up all the Christmas trees, and have a nice dusting of glitter that still lingers for months after Christmas has ended. Cake for all three meals is socially acceptable. Honestly there’s not a lot of nutritious eating going on here because we’re busy wrapping presents and don’t feel like cooking, and because sometimes we like to YOLO a little too close to the (muffin top) sun.

And then take umbrage with the muffin top in January. But I’m digressing and that’s a problem for January Allison.

There’s also a fun to Christmas as an adult when you can create it however you want.

Growing up Christmas was a toss-up holiday. Meaning that during the years it was awesome, it was pretty awesome, full of glitter and magic and baked treats and all the things that generally make Christmas fun.

Then when Christmas happened to fall during a stressful, upsetting or mournful time – man, it was awful. The last thing I wanted was to celebrate or slap on the company face when I would prefer to be alone and having a good cry in private. Which I did a lot of during those challenging years.

Christmas really does have a way of amplifying the emotions, for better and for worse.

But over the past few Christmases being in my 30s, there’s a new energy to the season. It’s surpassed just loving the holiday but almost experiencing the mania of wanting to soak in everything during the short window the season is here.

It’s wanting to run through my neighborhood and say good morning to the inflatable Snoopy Santa one of the neighbors has in their front yard, as well as take in the beautiful lights the suburbs near me put up in their downtowns.

It’s drinking all of the peppermint coffee and indulging on seasonal desserts. It’s listening to Lindsey Stirling’s Christmas album on blast while wrapping presents, and then the next Sunday morning going to church for the Advent service.

Speaking of Advent services …

Growing up we were not churchgoers – I think once every five years or so we would attend Christmas or Easter services. Not Christmas and Easter. Christmas or Easter, so whatever’s a step below the C ‘n E churchgoers (probably heathens) was my family.

Now at 32, I’ve decided it’s time to get back to regular church attendance. I used to attend regularly from 2015 to 2020, then stopped at the start of 2020 to appease a boyfriend (terrible choice, by the way). Then the rest of 2020 happened, when nobody was leaving their houses period.

You hear Christians refer to the reason for the season during sermons, and speak about the excitement and hope that Christmas represents. I’m feeling it myself, and maybe what I’m feeling isn’t just Yuletide Mania, but rather, that renewed optimism for the future’s promise not yet here, and faith that God will deliver like He always has.

Maybe Yuletide Mania is really passion for something deeper and I shouldn’t be calling it “mania” at all.

But no matter what I’m calling it, it’s here and it’s pretty glorious.

So tomorrow I am heading to church for the Christmas cantata. It’s also Marina kitty’s birthday, which is stirring up emotions in me because she’s turning 14. I adopted her when she was 5, and thinking about the years I’ve had her – where we’ve both grown up – and how much joy and life she’s breathed into this place does get me a bit misty-eyed.

December really is emotional, isn’t it?

And so Reader-Friends, it’s time for me to log off for the night and get back to wrapping some presents. As well as touch up my fingernails. Gotta whip out the OPI nail polish in Big Sagittarius Energy for my department Christmas lunch and birthday weekend. Everyone knows you can’t have naked nails as the Yuletide Maniac.

Yours in life,

Allison