In case it’s not abundantly obvious I’m a bit of a grinch. Please don’t take it personally, it’s not you, it’s me. I thought I would save any holiday related rants until after readers had enjoyed there festivities so as not to seem like a party pooper. I do hope everyone enjoys their holiday, however they celebrate.

This year my grinchiness was in full swing with life as I once knew it falling to pieces, friends having troubles, family having troubles and of course the economy, the nation having troubles.

So I welcome the change of the new year, let’s make it a good one. We’ve got one fantastic change in leadership that is like a large bandage on the emotional scars our previous administration left us with over the last eight years.

As the nation came together to nominate this amazing man, my in-laws fell apart. A surprise ‘separation’ quickly became a divorce that threw a large monkey wrench into what was to be another big, loud, fun, holiday with my husband’s family. Without getting into it too much, Papa isn’t the first man to have a mid-life crisis, he wont be the last man but damnit that’s some crap timing. He left Nana, he left the job of grandpa behind. He’s got something he’s got to do that’s better then being with family - and even he doesn’t know what it is yet. He’ll find out that there is nothing better then being with family but it’s his journey to take I suppose, however dead-ended it may seem from where I’m sitting.

Because my family was/is a geographically scattered mess of emotional baggage themselves I was feeling slapped in the face with the task of creating the holidays myself. Oh, yeah, I’m mom now, I have to make this happen. So I set out to make our house holiday-tastic. An advent calendar right next to a menora, that’s what we’ve got going on.

Then my extended family came together for the first time in about 4 years. It was the first time many in my family got to meet my children. My very foreign grandmother got to meet my daughter (3-1/2 yrs) and my son (4 months) she was extremely touched by the event. I wish everything wasn’t so hard with her. She’s such a complex woman and very difficult to be around. I was shocked when my daughter offered her a hug, it was spontaneous and sweet, I saw the old woman’s eyes water over as if it were the one thing she needed and the last thing she ever expected to get for Chanukah.

Then, when all was said and done. When we’d made the trek 5hrs south to ‘Grandma’s house’ (my mom) and back 2hrs north to Nana’s (husband’s mom) there was this moment. Everything had gone beautifully well with both holidays (a relief and a surprise) but a moment before we were finally heading home ~ I had this undeniable urge to drive our car full of crap off a cliff. Not harm anyone just a large dump run. We’d lived without all those things for a year and was there anything that we really needed? No, of course not. Then I got a bit philanthropic I must admit, because instead of a dump run I’m making a run to the donation depot.

This is how my grinchiness always pans out. Much like the original story where I watch the Whos down in Whoville shoving each other aside for the last pair of slippers for their uncle, elbowing each other in the face to grab those earrings for mom. Then after the hoopla is over and I’ve watched my kids eyes light up and their excitement soar, and all the hugs and happy memories with the family we do have… well in the end I’m not really a grinch at all…

But I am glad it’s over.