This was Dad's saying every year for any of the major holidays. He didn't understand all the hubbub over the deal. He was a depression era baby and I shudder to think what their major holidays were like during those tough years.
I LOVED all the hubbub. The decorating, the wrapping presents, and especially the cooking. I pushed to get to do it ALL. I loved trying a new recipe every year for the family to try out.
Since Dad passed, the major holidays that I was so used to cooking up a storm for have fallen away. C-bullshit also cancelled the Friendsgiving I used to do each year on Dad's birthday. The past couple years have been an adjustment. It's almost a feeling of being bereft. Easter, I eat at McDonald's. I don't cook for a week to feed 100 people for Friendsgiving. I don't make gallons of candy to give out. I still have to stop myself from canning dozens of jams and jellies for gifts. I used to make 100 loaves of banana and zucchini bread each year. All gone.
Gratitude. Being thankful for the peace. Embracing this slower pace to life and holidays. No more craziness and stress. No more thousands of dollars spent on gifts each year for everybody. No gift wrapping. No $1500 grocery bill for the Friendsgiving. (Cause I always made WAY too much food.) No fussing over the decorations and having them be "perfect" for each dinner and all over every surface and keeping little hands and paws out of them.
My new holiday tradition is to find a project. I can keep myself busy all day; doing something I enjoy. This year is gonna be canning turkey. I'm gonna try a couple different ways of fixing and canning the birds. Raw pack and cooked. Probably gonna make gallons of broth.
With Handsome around now, things will probably change again. I hear we are going out to lunch tomorrow!