Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Grinch, Unlimited

I always post a lot of snarky Xmas stuff, the more irreverent, funny or bizarre, the better. It helps me get through it.

Christmas is hard for me. I have a lot of bad memories that are directly associated with this holiday and all its traditions. In my first year of this blog (2005) I laid out my long explanation for all my troubles in a post called "Get out the violins." My goal is to get to December 26 without some kind of meltdown... beginning with me, and sometimes taking down people or situations I care about.

It has really helped me to have lived in Austin for these past 9 years (we moved here the week before Christmas so it's an anniversary of something positive) because I am a holiday-orphan here. I am not required to attend family gatherings (some with gift-exchange rituals) that make me crazy sad. My apologies to those who are unfortunate enough to have ended up being related to me in some way, especially my poor, long-suffering husband, but believe me... nobody should even want to put me through that kind of thing. It is quite painful.

There are some Christmas gift exchanges, but only a few and all are done through the mail with no ceremony or ritual of traditions (at least on this end), and those are fine. I don't need to be medicated to do it. ;-)

We have no tree in the house, in fact, no decorations at all indoors. I've got a little bag of them, but this year didn't even bother to hang stockings for the kitty-cats. (sorry kitties.) Usually I put together a holiday e-card and send it all our friends, but this year I didn't even do that... and I do feel bad about that last one... I may have just gone too far this time. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to make it. I'm very happy that it's almost here... and gone.

Read other people's shared hellish stories on My Miserable Christmas.

7 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Hey, there's no law that says you have to celebrate Christmas, so grinch on, Blueberry, grinch on!

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Just read your 2005 post. Curses on all your relatives, in-laws and exes. Bastards.

Blueberry said...

Thanks Debra. Yeah, I really should just get over them already.

Utah Savage said...

Some things are impossible to "get over." We carry certain memories in our blood and bone and things trigger the pain to rise up and reach unbearable levels this time of year. And despite what Debra said about there being no law that says we have to celebrate Xmas, our culture does demand we join in the buying orgy, deck the halls and put on a happy face. Evey time somebody tells me to cheer up I want to scream "fuck you!" I'm tempted to tell people who call out "Merry Christmas"that I'm Jewish or Hindu and your quaint "christmas" means nothing to me. The only good thing about Xmas to me is the light is now going to start coming back and I have only three or four months more of snow shoveling.

So Grinch on my darling. I'm right beside you.

PS, I'm sure the pussies will forgive you for the missing socks.

Anonymous said...

Never was very big on Christmas. Not that have unhappy memories. I don't. Just always seemed to be a strange sort of holiday for a family of agnostics and atheists.

Get through the holiday and wait for New Years. That's much more fun!

Feliz Nuevo Ano!

(Kvatch y La Frogette de Ecuador)

yellowdoggranny said...

you need to find my friend shady lane and become austin buddies..she and brewster like to go to a lot of austin stuff..and she has 'the dysfunctional christmas cookie party'...all the do is drink and smoke and burn cookies...i miss them..ha..
she goes to golds gym 2 times a week, body pump and african drum dance classes..she's 63 i think..but you'd never know it..she is the amazing yankee..
she's the one that goes to the day of the day parade every year and usually is in the parade..
life is what you make it..and so is christmas..chin up tits out.

Michael Bains said...

Do Grinch on Blueberry! And thanks for the drop by. Xmas isn't any worse for me than any other day, and I'm "lucky" that most of my "good" childhood mems are about xmas, so all that tinsel and shit do make me smile.

What'd Kvatch say? Feliz Nuevo Ano!