THAT TIME OF YEAR

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

It's the holiday season again; time for me to sink into my yearly depression. It started 23 years ago when my father died 2 days after Thanksgiving.

That Christmas was horrible; I was pregnant, had two other children, and, while my mother, sisters, and I had no desire to celebrate Christmas that year, we decided to go ahead with it for the kids.

Now, the holiday depression has grown from losing my dad, to a time to reflect on how my children treat me all year long. Come Christmas time, I ask for Christmas lists from my kids and Ken's son. They put on their lists really expensive stuff, and I have always tried to get them what they want. Very seldom do they ever ask what Ken and I would like for Christmas.

Like my birthday and mother's day, I'm sure they wouldn't even bother to come to my house for Christmas, but they show up because they know they are going to get presents. This year I told everyone that we would be setting a limit of $50.00 for each person we buy for. Ken's wife told us she is redecorating the boys rooms and asked us to buy them sheets and a comforter. What 5 and 3 year old wants to open a set of sheets on Christmas? But, Ken insisted on doing it, so I didn't say a word and just ordered the damn things. Each set cost $85.00. I went out on my own and bought them a big bowling alley toy which was another $70.00. So much for the budget.

While Doug and his wife were here a few weeks ago, his wife was looking at my catalogs at bedroom ideas. She found something that was really expensive and told the boys she would "hit up" Grandma Beverly (Ken's mom) for it. That statement right there told me a lot about her. I thought it was just Doug, but it looks like she's a user too. Can't take the time to visit, except when there's money involved. This Christmas is just going to suck