Holiday Rant

(I'm in a ranting kind of mood... and feel like airing my holiday season grievances. Unfortunately, the best forum at the moment is here. Oh well... better to blog than to throw a frozen turkey across the room, right?)

Here they are in nice list form:

1. Shopping... especially in malls or discount places like Wal-Mart. I mean, a person was actually trampled trying to get into Wal-Mart on Black Friday. No thanks. I'll employ the internet and pre-Thanksgiving shopping hours as much as possible to minimize the chance of death/injury by stampede or shopping cart.

2. Bad food. I'm not talking about "bad-for-you food" like cookies, candy, and other tasty Christmas cuisine with way too much fat and sugar. I'm talking about bad food - food that is not well-prepared, is made with poor ingredients, or is leftover from Thanksgiving and served after being frozen for a month. Yuck. Even more than Thanksgiving, I feel like Christmas dinner should be a special meal that took many heart-felt hours to prepare. If a host is unwilling to put forth this effort, or allow others to do it in their stead, then go to a Chinese Restaurant (I can never in good conscience recommend Denny's and Chinese restaurants are typically open on Christmas day.) Better yet, order dinner from the Honey-Baked Ham store... or even Boston Market. If you don't care, be honest and embrace it. Don't make your family members suffer.

3. Drivers. In a way, I mean traffic, but would like to assign the horrendous traffic blame to the responsible parties - drivers who are in a rush to get to the mall, grocery store, work, present wrapping kiosk, Grandma's house, pictures with Santa, whatever. I know everyone is in a rush which causes courtesy to go out the window. However, it shouldn't. That isn't in the spirit of the holidays. And it's dangerous to you and your kin.

4. Making assumptions about other people's schedules. Generally, assume that people are busy. This isn't a bad thing, but don't get upset if someone can't re-arrange their schedule to go to a party or family gathering. Try to be understanding and see if you can maybe get together after the holidays when things calm down a bit.

5. Inappropriately addressed Christmas cards. This is more personal than general, but certainly irks me. I decided to keep my maiden name when I got married - not because I don't love my husband or don't plan to stay married for the rest of my life. I kept my last name because I really love it and it means a lot to me, so I did not feel like I could just get rid of it to take on a name with no significance to me personally. This is not that uncommon these days. Back to the point, some people don't know that I didn't change my name. That's fine, I don't mind having things addressed to "Mrs. ******" when they genuinely don't know any better. However, I do not go by Mrs. Afterall, I am only 25 and am my own person, not simply the "other half" of my husband and certainly not his property. One day if I have children, I will go by Mrs. Not until then. So, why is this a problem with Christmas cards? Because certain people insist on addressing me as Mrs. And not just "Mrs. *****," but actually as "Mrs. [My husband's first and last name.]" ARGH!!!!!!!! This is not 1956. I am an ardent feminist. Certainly family members know this and choose to ignore it which is more maddening than I can even begin to express.

6. Family drama. I could write a lengthy book about this. But, really people... spending time with your loved-ones is one of the fundamental precepts of the Christmas celebration. Don't use the holidays as an excuse to advance a family feud. Or to make a family member feel guilty for not seeing you more often. Or to cause a new rift because aunt so-and-so's ugly Christmas sweater offends you. If you have a problem with someone, by all means have a Festivus party the week before Christmas to air all your grievances and MOVE ON. Or, if you don't feel like having it out with the family that annoys you so, be considerate enough to keep it to yourself and not make passive-aggressive stabs at others because it makes all parties present either angry or at the least incredibly uncomfortable.

Alright, there's my rant. I'm doing my very best to make this Christmas an enjoyable one. If it's not, at least I can honestly say that I tried my best.