In my working days, I truly relished the holiday
season. Christmas shopping was fun and
we’d go all out on gifts and wrapping.
The days off from work were savored.
New Years day meant the end of the fun and heading back into the usual
workday grind.
Retirement put a different face on it.
Christmas on the boat meant scaled down celebrations because we
had no space for a Christmas tree; nor did we have space to store frivolous gifts
that we might have given one another in previous years.
Now that we’re back living on land, we find that holiday season
has taken on yet another character – for many reasons. A small condo means that we can’t have a huge
12-foot Christmas tree. In fact, a real
tree is very impractical. Living on
retirement income after the recession means that the gift budget is tight so we
can’t indulge in the excesses of the past.
We did have a great holiday season. We were able to roast a turkey again for
Thanksgiving. We did have a very pretty
artificial Christmas tree decorated with the ornaments that had been in storage
while we were cruising. It was fun
unwrapping them after so many years. And
we exchanged gifts as usual and revived our old tradition of a whole ham for
Christmas dinner.
But since every day is a day off, the sense of “specialness”
(I know that’s not a real word) was just not the same. Maybe we should have made a point of
participating in more holiday events. We’ll
give that a try next year.
As it is, I’m just glad to be rid of the holiday advertising
and hype and junk mail from every store in town. Glad to get back to normal, whatever that is.
Happy New Year!
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