My extended family hates the holidays. Instead of being happy that this is the time of the year to get together, they start dodging phone calls out of fear my mother will invite them over, or ask what they are doing for Christmas.
I was looking at this pretty red velvet jumper dress at Chadwicks that would be perfect for a holiday get together. It would be so cool to have egg nog, holiday music, plum pudding and a kid who says "God bless us everyone" and everybody chuckles. Maybe just one year.
Ok, so perhaps I have been watching too many TV Christmas specials on the Hallmark Channel.
It's not quite so bad for us, but I haven't exactly been having the holidays I dreamed of for my kids -- or even the kind I grew up having. The crowd is smaller, the conversation has all but disappeared, the post-meal board games are gone, and a lot more people are watching TV during dinner than my one "big galoot" (do many people outside my family use that expression? it's done lovingly) of a cousin. And we have to take very small children 5 hours in the car if we want to see the usual people.
5 hours in theory, that is...
Well.... why don't YOU be the one to host just such an event? First you invite your "extended family". If they refuse you (or won't answer their danged phone), then you go out and invite friends. If they won't come, you then invite the disenfranchised - maybe a widow from church, an elderly neighbor...
Just like the parable in which the rich man fills his banquet hall with the poor and forgotten , that's what you could do. What a way to honor Christmas! And what a valuable lesson for your own children... The point is not to bemoan their lack of heart, but to give your heart to others.
And you can still wear that pretty red jumper while doing so!