filed in Holiday Cheer
Taking the Lead On Holiday Cheer
Three years ago, I invited several friends to my home for an extravagant Christmas dinner, which remedied a number of anxieties. It gave me something festive to focus on during the lead up to the holidays, kept me busy prepping on Christmas Eve, and when the big day arrived, I was assured of good company and a home-cooked meal. And so, a new tradition was born. This year, Iām using recipes from Sunday Suppers at Lucques. How are your holidays shaping up?
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14 comments for “Taking the Lead On Holiday Cheer”
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The holidays for my family are always a mess. And this year I am taking it all in stride. I am choosing to relax and not put pressure on myself for having that “picture perfect” season. Last night I stayed up with a bottle of Sauvingon Blanc and made peppermint chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese candy cane frosting. I’ll bring some with me to work and I’ll eat the others for breakfast! Christmas cards haven’t gone out, I only just decided to put up a tree and I found a $2 ugly sweater to wear for a Winter Solstice/End of Days Fish Fry on Friday. So far, this season is shaping up to be pretty swell! CHEERS!
Love your attitude and your ingenuity. Wish I could sample some of those peppermint chocolate cupcakes!
I thought I was getting through the holiday season just fine. No major drama, the stuff that needed to get done was getting done, and it was all balanced out with some holiday socializing with several fellow unattached single friends, so I wasn’t feeling like a fifth wheel at every social function.
That ended this afternoon. I was finishing up my Christmas shopping, and realized that I have no more real tasks ahead of me (except for wrapping said gifts) between now and Christmas Day.
And then it hit me – a year ago at this time, I was involved with someone who had told me that he thought of me as a future wife and I’d been ecstatically happy to find someone who really “got” me, who didn’t look down on my quirks, and appreciated my thought process, and I’d been happy to find someone who I respected and cared for so much.
A month and a half later, I’d found out that he’d been cheating on me since Thanksgiving weekend with a now former friend of mine, and while I’m over him specifically and wouldn’t take him back if he were the last man on Earth, I’m still not yet over her (we’d been close friends for many years), nor am I over having that feeling that I’d had a year ago, because until then, I had never thought that life could be that good. I sometimes fear that I won’t ever have that feeling again.
Sorry to be a Debbie Downer… I normally love the holiday season, but I realized this afternoon that I’d just been going through the motions these last few weeks, which has been a good distraction, but it’s no substitute for really feeling it. The last time I felt so unconnected to the holidays was in 2001 (I was still dealing with residual sadness from the 9/11 attacks at that time.)
I like your idea of hosting a Christmas banquet, but something like that is out of the question for me this year – I’ll have to keep it mind for future years, though.
@Laur – Any chance that you’d post the recipe for those cupcakes??? š
I’m so sorry, Stacey. What a bummer. Holidays are really hard. Sending you love and hope.
My engagement ended the Saturday after Thanksgiving 2011, and the relationship 100% ended a few days after Christmas Day. I sympathize with the associations you must be having this Holiday season 2012! And I didn’t have cheating to deal with.
Holidays can really make people crazy. Too much pressure to be happy.
I went through the same thing years ago; my live-in fiance was cheating but still insisted we go through the motions of Christmas. I spent a bundle on him, not realizing until January he had been using my credit card to buy gifts, dinners, etc., for his new girlfriend.
Then we arrived late to Christmas dinner at his mom’s house (this guy was late for EVERYTHING) and were stuck with microwaved leftovers at a dirty table while everyone else watched football.
Then he wanted to stop at his friend’s house to “just say hello” to yet another ex-girlfriend (the one he had been cheating on when he first asked me out, as I also learned much later).
The year before that, I broke my wrist when we had to go over to his sister’s house on Christmas night to break up a party getting out of control. I ended up losing my job and being on disability for three months as as result.
Good times.
I had actually forgotten about all of that. Hey, this year doesn’t seem to so bad to me and that single thing is again looking not so bad, either. (I deleted the last remnant from OkCupid when he ran out of things to ask me after four e-mails.)
I have stocked up on all kinds of things for the long weekend; See’s chocolate, real SF sourdough bread (don’t you love the Internet and FedEx?); splits of champagne just the right size for me; Tom Wolfe’s new novel; a new Gary Moore concert DVD; a new book of guitar music to work on; and a new quilt project, among other things.
Peppermint chocolate cupcakes sound like the perfect breakfast food. Even I might break down and bake something like that!
Chocolate is a must.
Here’s the link to the recipe. (which I found on Pinterest of all places) Mine, of course, looked nothing like the ones pictured but they were DELICIOUS! And yes, they made a perfect breakfast one morning! Merry Holidays one and all.
http://www.cookingclassy.com/2011/12/peppermint-chocolate-cupcakes/
Oooohhh, Thanks! These look soooooo good! š š š
That’s the way it usually ends up, but it’s not how they look that matters, it’s how they taste. š
Happy holidays!
Those cupcakes look like the perfect Christmas breakfast. Yum.
I feel that there’s a lot of pressure to have the perfect holiday and to do things a certain way. As much as I enjoy the togetherness that the holidays bring, there are times when it’s just another day to me and I prefer my own company. I’m not one for loud, large, and festive gatherings.
Happy holidays! No matter how you spend it, I hope you’re enjoying it.
You nailed it, Dienna. It’s the pressure for the holidays to be PERFECT that often gets in the way of our having a good experience. Having grown up Jewish without the tradition of Christmas in my family, makes for a lot less pressure. But with so much of the culture bombarding us with images of what the holidays are supposed to be like, it’s still hard, even for me, not to succumb to it.