12 Days of Christmas

We are approaching my biggest "hate season" of the year.............the week before the kids get out of school for the holidays.

I absolutely positively LOATHE this time of year.

Ten million phone calls, all while I am trying to eat dinner ( yes, I don't pick up................but I still have to return them, later) . Dozens of notes home from the kids' school, all on separate crumpled pieces of paper that I have to fish out of their backpacks, line up, and make a list to do all the things I am supposed to make / buy/ cook/ bring/ pay for. Four or five stupid meaningless activities each day - either at my work, hubster's work, or the kids' school, or via our extra-curricular activities, that purportedly address "family togetherness" and "the real meaning of Christmas", and all of which require ME- the mom- to go to a store, a different one each time, stand in a long line and deal with rude people in the parking lot and buy some useless crappy ugly item, always a specific one .

Son #1 needs a brown turtleneck for the school play, ( not black, not white - BROWN. Searchd every where, they don't make them in kids sizes. Had to order women's small from LL Bean. ) Son #2 needs red grapes for a class party, (when we first moved here, difficult to find in this small town, in the middle of the country, in Dec) , hubby has a work related party for which we are trading ornaments of the world, I am forced to join the "Secret Santa" gift giving for a total stranger at work. Bah humbug ! All of these purportedly "family " activities actually TAKE me away from my family ! Here's the thing: I don't begrudge the folk who want to do this stuff. My personal friends at work and I do exchange small gifts. What I dislike is being forced into doing this, for a total stranger, all in the name of "community spirit". When you start to total up the sums of money - for my work, husband's work, school "Secret Santa's" for the kids.....it starts to add up to a lot of money. For people I don't know. For crappy gifts no one wants. Don't get me started on the "Please donate $10 or $20 to this cause.....that cause....the other cause".....at my work, hubster's work, the kids x2......it's not that I don't want to help others. I just want to choose the causes that are important to my own belief system.

On Tues of this week I cancelled everything (piano lessons, karate lessons, football practice, ceramics class, cub scouts) and just stayed home and snuggled and talked to my kids and read books. That's how I want to spend my family time. So to cope with all my stress, I wrote a song :

Only 12 days till Christmas, and a message left for me
Said , could you bring a dozen cookies ?
They're needed for the school party.

Only 11 days till Christmas, and a note came home to me:
We need 11 dollars for the teacher's "angle" tree.

Only 10 days till Christmas, and my husband said to me
Please buy 10 books of stamps and mail gifts to my family.

Only 9 days till Christmas and I got a note at work that read
We need 9 more faculty to "volunteer" for our holiday spread.

Only 8 days till Christmas and my checkbook had to say :
Only 8 dollars left to plan your holiday !

Only 7 days till Christmas and a UPS man left for me :
Seven giant boxes to drag inside and put under the tree.

Only 6 days till Christmas and a message came to me
Please donate 6 serving platters for the teacher's appreciation tea.

Only 5 days till Christmas , my "to do " list says to me :
Finish shopping now !

Only 4 days till Christmas and my son came home and said
Mom I need 4 books to swap - ones I haven't read .

Only 3 days till Christmas and a phone call said to me
Please bring some cheese cubes to your son's school party !

Only 2 days till Christmas and I got a note that said
Please bring two loaves of your special bread.

Only 1 day till Christmas and I hear my phone start to ring
So I threw it out and haven't done a thing !