The Christmas Train
When we lived in Germany we would often listen to Canadian Forces Radio, especially when it was time for Vinyl Cafe which is a great radio program hosted by the late Stuart McLean. On the program, Stuart tells stories from the fictional life of Dave and Morley. Some of the stories make you cry, most make you laugh until you cry, and they are all so good.
We have a set of four CDs filled with Vinyl Cafe stories that are a lot of fun to listen to on long road trips. One story on those CDs is "Dave Cooks the Turkey" in which Dave promises his wife Morley that he will take care of the Christmas turkey. Come Christmas Eve, Dave realizes he's forgotten to even buy a turkey. He runs to a grocery store in the middle of the night and buys their last remaining turkey, which is a frozen bird. Dave takes the turkey home and, while his wife and kids are volunteering at a soup kitchen, defrosts the turkey with an electric blanket and a blowdryer. Once it was ready to cook, Dave wasn't able to figure out how to use his oven. Desperate to get the turkey and not let his wife down, he heads for a local hotel, checks into a room, calls room service, and asks them if they would cook the turkey for him. They do and he makes it home with the turkey, and even gravy, right before his wife and kids arrive at home. To make the house smell as if he'd been cooking turkey all day, he dripped gravy on top of the light bulbs hoping the warmth would somehow diffuse the smell throughout the house. Of course, his wife finds out that Dave forgot all about the turkey when the gravy dripped off one of the light bulbs onto his mother-in-law.
It's a funny story all around but there is a moment after Morley, Dave's wife, finds out that the one thing she asked him to do for Christmas was forgotten until the night before. Morley likens Christmas and the required preparations for the entire season and the big day, to a train that is barreling down the tracks. She starts listing off the holidays that come before Christmas, beginning with Easter and making her way to Thanksgiving and Halloween, as stops along the way to the biggest of them all - Christmas. Morley expresses what moms know so well. We love the holidays and we want to make them magical for our families and filled with favorite traditions, beautifully decorated trees, delicious food, and perfect presents. Not to mention Christmas cards, neighbor gifts, and Christmas parties. The to-do list begins well before the day after Thanksgiving. My mom always started shopping for Christmas in January. I generally wait until October, but it makes for a busy final quarter each year. We can get lost in our heads thinking about all the things that need to happen. Planning, wrapping, ordering, baking, cooking, decorating, cleaning. It's a lot.
To anyone who is reading this and saying yeah, but you don't have to do all those things. And they're right. Do we need to do Christmas pajamas every year? Or send our cards to friends far and wide? Or give gifts to teachers and neighbors? Or decorate gingerbread houses? Or celebrate St. Nikolaus Day? Nope. But it's so hard to let go of those expectations we put on ourselves or that we feel from everyone around us. Plus in the moment, when we're delivering treats, or decorating gingerbread houses, or filling the girl's shoes with treats on December 6th, it is magical and wonderful and I love every second of those moments and they're worth the effort.
This year, I'm having shoulder surgery on December 7th, and to add to the load, we have three birthdays between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm feeling the pressure to have everything ready to go well before December even begins. Our Christmas cards were delivered today and will be addressed and mailed out early next week. I have just seven presents and all of the stocking stuffers left to purchase. Everything that I've bought so far has been wrapped as it comes into the house. Today I went out shopping with Valerey and picked up several more things from my list and more of this year's wrapping paper. I was so happy Home Goods had more of the paper I bought a month ago! When we got home I had three packages waiting from online orders. This evening I spent a couple of hours wrapping presents and sorting things out. Presents that need to be mailed to family on the east coast and to friends are in one spot and will be mailed when the cards go out. Birthday gifts for those December babies are almost all purchased and what is here already has been wrapped.
That’s amazing how much you have accomplished. The past few years I’ve tried to get as much of my Christmas shopping done before December so I can fully enjoy the month. I think you being so prepared will allow you to have more of a stress free and enjoyable holiday with your beautiful girls.
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