Ah, the holiday season. One of the many benefits of November and December is that it gives us so many opportunities to witness the differences between men and women. Keep in mind, I'm not making any value judgements here - I happen to think men are great. Perplexing, but great.
For example,
He of the Sea (thats HotS to those in the know) is going to be residing in this house approximately 10 days in the month of December. I only mention this to frame our current situation. This means 10 days to go to parties, decorate, watch holiday specials, write Christmas cards, go to a football game (go Navy!), see the Nutcracker, buy, wrap and assemble gifts, drink eggnog and entertain. Well, we've given up on entertaining, except for the family on Christmas eve and Christmas day. Due to HotS schedule, the whole preparing for the holidays thing must be pared back dramatically. I haven't written a single card yet, but fortunately I long ago sent a precedent for sending them April. And I haven't decorated a darn thing, though I'm going to get right on that tomorrow. We will, however, have multicolored lights decorating the exterior of our house, because HotS is currently braving cold weather and possible injury on the roof, putting up said lights. And I have to admit, I don't get it.
The lights are very festive, and in previous years I've always enjoyed seeing them as I turn into our street from some late night event. And I think that my kids like them. But let's be realistic here. I'm not going to remember to turn them on when he's gone, which gives us about a week of illumination. Or I'll forget to turn them off, thus jacking up our electric bill. Under the circumstances, my admittedly female perspective is that maybe there are some thing that should be more important than putting up lights.
That said, I'm writing this post instead of decorating, or writing cards, or planning Christmas dinner. And I don't hear HotS giving me a hard time about it. So, I think I should just be thankful that we're here together, we're both in the holiday spirit, and we're going to have a nice Christmas.
And now, I need to go admire some lights.
