2014-11-30

Must Be The Season Of The Binch

Every holiday season I go from excitement to nostalgia, to the feeling of wanting to help everyone and reach out because the holidays are HARD on a lot of people, to being barraged by messages of everyone looking for help and donations and prayers for SO MANY things and people, to becoming overwhelmed and eventually just shutting down and hating everything again, from the stress of ALL THE holiday THINGS.

That usually doesn't happen until about mid-Decemberish, but here I am before even December 1st singing "You're a mean one, Mrs. Binch" to myself.
My spirit animal. Bitch + grinch = Binch.
It's not surprising. I haven't been handling my stress well. Add holiday stuff and a few other truly depressing Life-ings, and it was bound to happen. I just didn't think it would be this soon.

I am trying. I'm doing the work. This year we got our family photo out of the way in November, as we intend to every year but usually don't. The teenager has been working for cash (I know, I tried to tell him) on some side job that's keeping him really busy. He came right out and said he doesn't want to try to be in the photo. Which sucks, but also? That means we can strap on some Christmas Nikes and just do it. It's done. The 2 yr old is literally holding a bag of freaking cereal in the picture, and she wouldn't sit WITH us so there is a separate picture of the girls and of us, but whatever, it's done. Maybe some day we'll laugh about that. Next thing.
We should have just used THIS picture and been done.
I always make them kiss, it's the ONLY WAY to make them
hold still long enough to take a picture that isn't blurry.
Thankfully we had the foresight to get our Christmas tree up early. The youngest has said about 55 times, "Thanks for my Christmas tree, Mom and Dad!" Totally worth the effort. 


So REAL-looking isn't it? Real plastic.
The Charlie Brown tree of fake Xmas trees
2 years ago we waited and procrastinated so long we never put up more than a tiny tabletop tree. Lame. Last year we were scrambling and it was stressful instead of fun. And it immediately fell over, but our old tree has been through a lot. 

I've had it for at least 15 years and my dad had fished it out of the garbage, so it already had a full life of it's own before entering mine. Like so many of my housewares. 

Here is one of my favorite Daddy-Dumpster-Dive decorations, a decades old light-up Santa. Hideous yes, but I just had to plug in and hang it on the window. This year I plugged it and discovered it doesn't work *sad trumpet music* 
This looks a LOT like Stinky Pete the Prospector from Toy Story 2
Yes, I could probably just check each bulb and replace whichever one doesn't work and maybe then they would all work. That's about as likely as Santa coming down our chimney. Our chimney is no doubt cemented shut since we have a furnace. I assume Santa sends a small elf in through a drain pipe. Or if he's smart uses actual magic, like "Accio present" to poof presents where they need to be. Wouldn't that be more environmentally friendly and less animal cruelty for reindeer?

I'm thankful we were able to get out and finally meet up with a friend I've been trying to see since SUMMER.
Thankfully, we got to see the Zoo Lights at Lincoln Park Zoo. That was lovely, and we could not have asked for a better day weather-wise in Chicago. It was just over 50 degrees! For almost December, that's practically surfing weather. 
More Zoo Lights pictures on my Instagram if you like that kind of thing
We were also at the zoo in the dark, which is really cool if you've never been. We got to see gorillas sleeping. It was very odd, they looked comatose on their beds of hay. With all the noise and kids tapping on glass, and even a few jerks taking FLASH photos, they didn't wake up. Just laid there with their giant arms, legs and sausage fingers laying about. 
No, just thought I would look and this was funny. from funny-pics.co
One youngin even had his or her legs folded up under it's arms. It looked cool, but the photo didn't turn out without flash and I didn't want to use the flash and start a Planet of the Apes situation.

I'm beyond thankful Thanksgiving is over. Ironically. For me, the day AFTER Thanksgiving is the real holiday: Cooking is over, we have tons of leftovers and paper plates, which my budget and American waste-producing guilt won't usually let me use. 
Nice try. I use PAPER. That burns right up and kills zero birds and fish. Probably.
But the day after a big party? You bet your giblets I'm using them. It's kind of glorious, the leftover pie for breakfast on a plate I don't have to wash. It's the closest I'll ever get to that feeling of holiday magic we used to have as kids, but as parents, specifically the COOKING parent, you never get again. 

I'm thankful we didn't drink the wine I bought for Thanksgiving until today. It's pairing nicely with my crabby mood and today's turkey soup, which thankfully marks the last of the turkey leftovers. 

If you're not a gravy fan, that dry meat is hard enough to choke down the day you cook it and each day it just gets worse. 

I usually make turkey pot pie but my son hasn't been around so other than a few sammiches with tomatoes, it's all rice and veggie soup.  Done.

I'm trying to focus on the thankfuls. That's the key to this season. Don't do more than you need to, or you'll make yourself a grinch.

This post was part of the Ten Things of Thankful experience. 

A reminder about holiday stress and suggestions for coping:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20047544

19 comments:

  1. Poor old light-up Santa. I know how attached we can get to old Xmas decorations. My fave is a plastic holly wreath for the front door that I bought at a garage sale 35 years ago for 25 cents. What a bargain! I've gotten every penny's worth of use out of it!

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    1. That sounds like an amazing wreath! A bargain at thrice the price.

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  2. I never seem to find my Christmas spirit until we sit down to dinner Christmas Eve. Something about that moment, where whatever got done got done, and whatever didn't get done it's too late to do is what finally lets me relax and enjoy the holiday.

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    1. That is so true, the ACTUAL celebrations, especially that day and of course the next are the ultimate, the finish line. Usually. Sometimes we put off certain parties/celebrations until after, and now my 2 yr old will always have her birthday party after Christmas, as her birthday is December 28th, but the holiday stuff will be mostly over!

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  3. One day my lack of finances won't make me stress out so much over the holidays. On top of which, we discovered tonight that the diesel for our diesel stove lasts maybe 3 months and it's a minimum of $400 at a time. Holy crap on a cracker. Liquid gold. Next year, we're installing a wood stove.

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    1. GOODLORD, that's crazy! Can you get a free-standing fireplace in the meantime? Not like a REAL one, one that LOOKS like a fireplace but is basically a heater. We have that in our basement because the people who lived here before us didn't put heating vents in all the basement rooms. It's underground so it gets FREEZING COLD in the winter. Like we could store meat down there. There is an old wall-mounted fireplace that heats up the whole basement if we leave it on for awhile. It works much better than a space heater, which just covers a small area. And bonus? It runs on ELECTRICITY. I would fill the house w/those :) Good luck! Hoping for a mild winter for us all. (Farmers Almanac says that won't happen, but you never know.)

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  4. Welcome Christmas, welcome Mrs. Binch. I love this TToT and of course, I love you. Paper plates are eco-friendly; they are made from the trees that fell down on their own and disposing of used paper plates puts natural goodness back into the circle of life. Don't question, just believe in the magic of Binchmas. Mucho XoXo

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    1. I'm glad someone does Miss Pattie! My fellow Binchmate :)
      I love that circle of life theory! Some weeks I can't even get all the special luxury items, like TOMATOES, let alone anything extra, but I love a good guilt assuagement!

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  5. I don't think my son has ever been to a Zoo lights (at least not that he remembers). Wen't a couple of times when my daughter was young, but that was long ago. Need to get that on the list this year.

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    1. We have a tiny zoo in our town that does lights, but they don't have many INDOOR places so my kids hate that. The Brookfield Zoo & Lincoln Park Zoo in the city both have plenty of places for them to go in and warm up for awhile, so they like that.

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  6. Ah yes, Thanksgiving is stressful and terrible, but the leftovers the next day are the best part. Besides, it's the only time you can justify eating pie for breakfast. "Well, I mean, it's just gonna go bad otherwise..."

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    1. I kind of lowkey WISH that were the only time I had pie for breakfast...

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  7. I'm working on it. The Binchness, I mean. It's just a lot at times.
    The garbage island I THINK is in the Pacific Ocean. This picture was controversial, I can't remember all of the details but I really try not to be wasteful. It's easy because I've been poor for a long time, so I always get EVERYTHING used and almost never use paper plates or disposable anything, just my regular plates and cups. I shouldn't say anything, I did use disposable diapers for my kids but at least not the plastic kind. I know, it's probably just as bad.
    The Zoo Lights was great, when I tried to take more pictures of the trees they came out blurry. I don't carry my regular camera, just my phone which kind of stinks.

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  8. I love how smartass your thankful is--but that your readers can tell that you really are thankful. Genius, I tell you. GENIUS!

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    1. I'm laughing right now because this 'genius" wrote this as part of a blog hop but I forgot to ever link up. But I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

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  9. ha this hits so close to home. the holidays SUCK, but the suck is so full of wonderful things. Like wine that pairs with anxiety and stress soup. Hang in there, mama!

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    1. True. I'll be fine, I was hit with bad news and a lot of stuff at once. Sometimes you have to vent a little in between the thankfuls.

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  10. LOL!!! I'm STILL laughing over the part about using a flash and causing a Planet of the Apes situation, Joy! For whatever reason I think this is the first time I found out you guys life in Chicago. One of my fav cities! I'm actually listening to the Bulls game on my NBA app as they go into overtime against the Mavs. This West Coast boy has been a fan for over 30 years now. I'm actually secretly very giving at Christmas - playing almost a real life Santa to my friends as best I can. But, on the outside...I'm arm and arm with you Ms Ginch!! Always, Grinch :)

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  11. Here I thought it was just me!

    You are way ahead of me, sista. I haven't even begun to think about a tree, or the holiday letter. GAH!

    And that picture with the girls and the lights makes the whole Christmas. You should just stop right there. Perfect.

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