Reader Friday: Holiday Side-Effects
We’re in the middle of Hanukkah. Tonight’s the night we’ve selected to be our family latke party. Whoever’s hosting the event knows their house will smell like grease for the next three days.So will any articles of clothing left too near the kitchen.
What’s a less-than-exciting side- effect of your holiday celebrations?
And a Happy Hanukkah to those who are celebrating.
Chag urim sameach, to you, Terry, and to all TKZers who celebrate The Festival of Lights.
To answer your question: cleanup.
Thanks, Joe. I don’t think anyone likes that part of anything. As host of this year’s Thanksgiving dinner, I was spared the chore.
Good morning, Terry. Holiday celebrations = good eating = 5 pounds of weight gain = the less-than-exciting side-effect of getting back on the diet and exercise.
Happy Hanukkah.
Thanks, Steve. Yes, the weight gain side effect is real for me. One night of eating = 10 days of trying to lose the excess poundage. I’m almost back to pre-Thanksgiving, and tonight’s repast will set me back again.
I have a relative who is incredibly negative. It really doesn’t matter, something will be wrong. More accurately, everything will be wrong. I get to listen to all of this.
I think we all have one of those, Alan. Is there a way to make them sit at the kid’s table?
Morning, Terry. Hope you’re having a wonderful Hanukkah.
I am so filled with the holiday spirit I can’t think of any less-than-exciting side effects. Ask again in January. LOL
Good for you, Sue.
Happy Friday, Terry! Hope you are having a wonderful Hanukkah.
I’m with Sue, mostly I’m excited about the holidays. I’d say the one thing that can detract is postponing sending out holiday cards and picking up gifts for family, and scrambling later in the month takes away from enjoying the holiday spirit. Determined to take care of both shortly 🙂
Our holiday fell right after Thanksgiving this year, so we’re done with shopping. Although to be honest, we gave up exchanging gifts once our kids were grown, other than tokens. We prefer to give them what they need when they need it.
Our girls were born in late October, our son in mid-November, so I always got my holiday shopping done early. If you’re out buying birthday presents, why not get all the gifts at the same time.
I gave up sending cards, too. Too many coming in that were pre-printed, addressed with printed labels, and not even a real signature or acknowledgment of who they were sending it to, or the slightest indication that they knew we didn’t celebrate Christmas. Most of them seemed as though they were sent because our names were on a list. If that’s the only communication I get all year … well, perhaps my Bah Humbuggery is showing. 😉
Very understandable 🙂 Our nieces and nephews are older now, so gift cards will well for them. As for cards, we’re lucky that we receive very personalized ones from friends and family.
Chag urim sameach, Terry!
My holiday gripe is impaired drivers. With one exception, every car accident I’ve been in has occurred in December. None were my fault.
That’s a serious–and dangerous–gripe. We stay off the roads as much as possible during major holidays. If we go out at all, we go early.
Happy Hanukkah!
My holiday season this year is curtailed because I just had a hip replaced. Stayed home for Thanksgiving, don’t know yet what we’ll be doing for Christmas. We usually go to my son’s house for both.
The less-than-exciting side effect? My son and wife (love them dearly) are successful parents of 9 (7 adopted) and business owners. We’re very proud of them. But, polar opposites in our view of current world events. We have to be vigilant in our avoidance of certain topics of conversation.
Which makes me sad. I’d like to return to the days of respectful debate, like I grew up with, but these days it’s like opening a box that just might be wired to blow up in our faces. In my view, nothing should be clung to so tightly as to destroy a family relationship. I’m not willing to take that chance.
Keeping that box tightly closed is very wearing sometimes. 🙁
I’m sure I’m not the only one who deals with this.
Hope you’re mended enough to gather with family for Christmas. We have a “no politics” (or pandemic) rule even though we’re all on the same page. No need to hear everyone yammering about what other people are doing.
🙂 🙂
Happy Hanukkah, Terry. I love the history of the Maccabean revolt. For years Mel Gibson has wanted to make a movie of this. Mattathias ben Johanan would be a juicy role.
Living here in LA, one side effect involves cars, as Debbie alludes to. Only it’s the impatient honking and sometimes outright rage in mall parking lots. Oh, happy holiday!
Thanks, Jim. I grew up in LA. Cars are always a problem. When we lived in Miami, we were warned not to get into any traffic altercations no matter how minor because the driver you upset might be carrying. And using.
That sounds like a movie I’d want to watch. I agree, a fascinating historical period.
A Southern New Year’s Day tradition, greens. I live in a huge L-shaped home, My bedroom is at the end of the L, and the kitchen is at the other end. Yet, for whatever weird reason, all the kitchen aromas end up in my bedroom. Normally, that’s not a problem, but New Years greens have the absolute worst stench.
Anyway, one year, Mom cooked them the night before, and she used the last of the greens, rescued from the garden, because a brutal cold front was moving in. So several large pots of greens, and the mother of all stenches. In order to sleep, I had my windows open for several hours during the coldest night ever, it was below zero. Freezing was preferable to that aroma.
I lived in the South long enough to have Hoppin’ John as a New Year’s Day tradition. Most of the time, I used spinach for the greens. The house would have been closed up because the air conditioning was running.
Chag sameach, Terry!
If we travel over a holiday, as we did for Thanksgiving, it’s the travel home that’s less-than-exciting. Airports, TSA, planes, layovers. The upside is that I get a lot of reading done during the trip.
Thanks, Kay, and I agree. The return trip (and then the laundry) are less-than-exciting parts of holidays. Or travel in general.
Happy Hanukah to those celebrating!
A less than exciting side-effect, Terry? How about *experience under the belt*, only measured in pounds or inches instead of years or achievements 🙁
Thanks, Louis. It usually takes weeks to work off what took days (or hours) to put on.