GRINCH GRINCH GRINCH!!! JOY JOY JOY!!

     

I was going to write about how I’ve been so Grinchy

about Christmas lately, AND how now, I’m beginning to get the joy.

BUT then our router got goofy (as in which tangle of wires goes where)  and I got goofier thinking I could fix it and crawled under the table holding all the wires of stuff ( DVD player, Digital Photo Frame, turn table, computer, CD player stacked on turn table, a lamp---the usual.  No success and as a bi-product, I learned that I’m not as flexible as I thought and I took pathetic measures to get up and down and around. 

So now, I feel tired and stiff and have no Internet.

And I hate to miss a deadline even when it’s self-imposed.

OK. Back to joy.  Mutter mutter mutter.  No one eats sugar anymore anyway.  No use making Christmas cookies.

Mutter, mutter.  Families are too complex (at least mine) too spread geographically, too many grandparents, too much travel, too little being there.  Mutter, mutter. Too many celebrations in December.  Skimming with a smile and a drink. Mutter, mutter, mutter.  Gluttony of food and presents.  Indulgence and guilt.  Mutter, mutter, mutter. Can’t find a good old fashioned Christmas tree with space for ornaments. Only well groomed trees. Mutter, mutter, mutter.

There. I feel better already. Nothing like a good complaint session to clear the air. My daughters and I used to take turns complaining and do a kind of round robin until we felt good and finished. (I may have shared this before but it is good holiday behavior. Pick your complaint parent now.)  Good complaining can’t be one sided or it's an iconic pit party. My two daughters and I would start out slow and polite and end up shouting our heavy duty complaints. One time we even put it to song and sang it from the front porch. We always ended up light hearted and laughing at/with life. If this sounds sweet and Hallmark like, you've got it wrong. Think wicked.

So Jingle Bells. Holly Jolly. Joy to the World. My Grinch is defeated.  Nothing like good complaining to bring back joy.

And I mean it. A counter-intuitive truth.