Living with Less by Mark Tabb

Author:Mark Tabb
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Published: 2010-01-24T16:00:00+00:00

Slower

Chapter 9

Courtney Dreads Christmas

The only reason for time is so that

everything doesn't happen at once.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

Be very careful, then, how you live—

not as unwise but as wise, making the most of

every opportunity, because the days are evil.

EPHESIANS 5:15-16 (NIV)

Courtney dreads Christmas. If it were up to her, December 25 would be struck from the calendar. It's not that she has anything against celebrating Jesus' birth. But the day is anything but a time of celebration, unless you enjoy celebrating on the road. She and her husband, Jim, spend most of their holidays crammed into a car with their two sons and boxes of gifts, sprinting back and forth between relatives' homes. Peace on earth it's not, and by the end of the day, she is fresh out of goodwill toward men.

The funny thing is, neither Courtney nor Jim ever planned this. They never sat down one November day and said to one another, “Let's figure out a way to make our holidays as crazy and stressful as humanly possible.” No one ever plans to be run ragged in the name of spreading holiday cheer. Somehow it just happens. And Courtney and Jim feel absolutely powerless to do anything about it.

Two years ago Jim almost worked up the nerve to phone his grandmother and say they would not be at her house by eight in the morning for the traditional family Christmas breakfast. He went so far as to dial the number, but he hung up before anyone could answer. “We're family…” he shrugs without finishing his sentence. He doesn't have to. Holidays are family time, and if he and Courtney plan on getting along with their families during the other eleven months of the year, they better carve out a large swath of time for them during Christmas.

And they do. From midafternoon Christmas Eve to nine o'clock Christmas night, they visit at least seven different houses for seven different Christmases. Somewhere in between, early on Christmas morning, their sons manage to unwrap the gifts under their own Christmas tree. But they don't have time to actually play with any of their new toys, at least not for a day or two. By then Courtney and Jim are back at work and the baby-sitter does most of the assembly required and exchanges D-cell batteries for C-cells.

That's why Courtney hates Christmas. She isn't Scrooge's great niece but one harried mother, wishing she could find a way to actually enjoy the holidays while building memories with her children. Maybe someday she will. Maybe someday she will work up the nerve to tell her mother they will not be at her house for Christmas brunch. Maybe someday she'll tell her father and stepmother to make plans without them because she and Jim and the boys plan on doing nothing but turning their living room into the biggest Legoland this side of Toys “R” Us.

Maybe someday she'll tell her grandmother that she is cooking her own Christmas dinner in her own kitchen for her own family of four.

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