Yes, I’m still stuck on Christmas. I think I have enough posts to stretch this out to Valentine’s Day, but I’ll spare you.
I hate to be a Scrooge so this is my last Christmas related post.
Things I dislike, intensely about Christmas.
Stores so crowded you have hair in your mouth and it isn’t yours.
Christmas gifts that are chores.
Relatives who sign people up for dating services. That isn’t a gift even if you filled out the questionnaire and created the profile.
Anything of the month, except alcohol and chocolate.
-10 degrees. I don’t care of it’s fahrenheit or celcius. I don’t like it.
Rumors I didn’t start.
Things I love about Christmas.
Rumors I started.
Laughing until you cry because your sisters are so stupid funny.
The faces of little children Christmas morning.
The crunch of snow and the silence of a bitter cold night.
Reliving your childhood with your siblings and cousins.
Snowball fights, sled rides, horses, falling into snow drifts so deep you need help getting out.
Roaring fires, hot chocolate, knowing looks when your crazy elders speak their ‘wisdom’.
Your crazy elders you hope will live forever, but know won’t.
And yes, maybe even the tree you were given. That’s where I’ll be the rest of the day, the six hour journey to get the tree. Hopefully it produces apples of gold, real not gold plated.
And one more thing, remember the Writer’s Digest’s Best Websites Contest. If you read a blog and think, Wow she’s really funny, ignore her and remember me. Instructions provided purely as a public service.
1. Send brief email to writersdigest@fwmedia.com (click now)
2. Put 101 Best Websites Nominations in subject line. (cut and paste now)
3. As an example include some kind of note like
Please consider Deidra Alexander’s Blog at www.deidraalexander.com for your list of 101 Best Website. (copy and paste optional. )
More on the side of love. Def. a plus;)
I have my moments. Thanks.
*chuckle*
Well said!
Thank you.
“…Stores so crowded you have hair in your mouth and it isn’t yours.” …Okay, that’s funny. LOL
Very
Hang on, the new years here. LOL
Only if it’s your hair and someone else’s mouth. If it’s your mouth then not so funny.
hahaha…well said
Totally uniteresting little titbit: did you know that in spain they start selling lottery tickets for Christmas IN AUGUST!
No, but the statement brings all kinds of weird thoughts to my mind. Spain a little short on Christmases, limited number? Must be a big money maker, huh.
Thank God for the stuff we do love. Otherwise, I can see where the get- together episodes and commercialism would be kind of dreary and insane.
I really like the photo!
I’m with ya. Though the bed warmer I got for my birthday is priceless, like going to bed in freshly baked bread, sans the smell.
You better post a picture of the tree
Enjoy the drive!
Hopefully with golden apples attached.
I hate being in the stores during holiday season.
We sing it like it’s the blues.
couldn’t agree more!
Thanks.
How lucrative are golden apples? I love the idea of a money tree. But I would need the hybrid, the one with euros, dollars, pounds, yen and so forth.
Red.
I’ll stick with the pure gold.
What a great post! I love what you hate…I mean I love to hate the same things – it’s why I shop online! And I love what you love…and loved the picture.
Thanks. I even hate the grocery store. I don’t like crowds. My goal is in and out as fast as possible.
There is nothing wrong with hanging on to Christmas a little bit longer. If fact, it might do us all good to get a little taste through-out the year.
I love all the things u love along with my traditional Guyanese Christmas dishes
I also hate all those things u hate as well. Especially crowded stores ugh! Great post and it’s ok I hold on to Christmas as long as I can too. I also hope you are chosen for the Writers best website list!
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Glad you appreciate my list. I think I’m in denial that another year has started already
A beautiful summation of most of our Christmas experiences I’m sure. At least the commercialism has died down, and we can bask in the waning glow of the Christmas lights before everyone takes them down (except my neighbor who keeps his decorations up ’til almost Spring).
You got my vote on the digest contest… good luck.
I love when my sister and I laugh until our bellies hurt and tears start rolling down our face. I hate Christmas shopping with lots of people. It gives me anxiety. Especially when there is so many people around me. What ever happened to personal space?
My sister is stupid funny. I enjoy her most with little sleep and lots of wine.
When I was 7 Christmas was 10 years away. At 62 now, December is already just around the corner. Unfortunately. Not the Christmas part, but the around the corner part. The now I will be 63 part.
Time passes at different rates for different ages.
love it! luckily, i’m an aussie so -10 degrees at christmas time never happens! instead, my family will sometimes have a seafood christmas lunch and head to the beach
oh and i agree about the crowds..exactly why all my gifts were handmade this year! thanks so much for following me and liking my posts by the way, you were my first follower!
Seafood Christmas lunch, I coming to your place for Christmas!
If the tree has apples at all…that is a boon thing. The Holidays are always a mishmash of likes and dislikes for me, but I’m happy to say I’ve learned to let the likes hold sway…and keep those memories closest.
No apples, Japanese Maple.
Loved reading your post…much agreed with…
Thanks, I can be positive, sometimes.
In that case, Merry Christmas to You!
Thanks. I’ll hang on to Christmas for a bit longer.
Ok, yes, you are really funny! What a gift……I love your lists! You should come home to my family at Christmas & write about them….Thanks for the great writing…
I’ll keep you in mind when I want to escape my own family. Thanks.
Loved the list. Thanks for liking my post.
Thank you. I’ve enjoyed your blog.
Love the photo above with the dog and snowman. Precious.
Also loved your description of winter. It just makes me nostalgic for Central NY which we left in 1999: “The crunch of snow and the silence of a bitter cold night.”
I hate cold and love it too. One of those weird contradictory things.
I only miss some of the winter. The thought of those frigid winters – without layers and layers of clothing – still gives me the chills.
It’s a love hate relationship with me. But I live in a temperate climate so it’s nice for a break.
Oh the hair in the mouth! haha….as always, your posts are the best! Your blog is such a bright spot in my life! Thanks…… (Christmas dislike: my in-laws are Swedish and for two years I had to politely choke down Lutefisk….not liking fish anyway…but fish soaked in lye…eeek!)
Holy moly, that sounds worse than the turkey jello that the Thanksgiving leftovers became.
Being Norwegian myself, I can”t resist my giving you my best Lutefisk recipe;
Take 2 pounds of Lutefisk and place on an unfinished pine bench, tenderize with a wooden mallet for 30 minutes, and serve the pine bench.
They say it’s to help us remember out ancestors, personally, I think it underlines why our ancestors emigrated!
And what humans will do to survive.
I love the cold, but an Australian xmas means heat and the bad kind of roaring fire. Next time you fall in a huge snowdrift just think of us cooking our arses off down here and love it for me too
Hope your golden apple tree comes with a self drilling base so there will be no hole digging required!
Unfortunately no self planting tree and no golden apples to pay for help.
Your list is a gift in and of itself.
Could you imagine everyone’s faces if I had just given them a copy of the list on notebook paper!
I have awarded you the Verstile blogger award http://showard76.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/row80-2012-versatile-blogger-award/
Thank you. You rock. I’ll be getting the requirements updated to each of these awards as time permits.
Heading for email right now.
Don’t worry, I’m still stuck on Christmas myself and feeling sad that the festive season is drawing away…
Keep your eyes on Valentines. I don’t know if that helps or hurts.
[...] Friend O’ The Blog, Diedra Alexander, has some closing thoughts on [...]
Thanks for the link. You rock.
Loved the list had fun reading it…
Thanks. Glad you liked it.
Great lists! Funny thing is, I had a strange hair in my mouth yesterday. It really is quite disturbing, isn’t it?
Hopefully it was yours.
hilarious….i hate the rumbling xmas crowds…its aggravating and i have yet discovered the patience for it. thank you for visiting my blog.
mannie
I’m not a crowd person on my best days. And patience? Who said it was a virtue?
Hair in mouth caused my lips to lift in smile mode only after 2 cups of coffee, and then, that’s not all: I clicked like on Facebook and voted by sending an email to Writer’s Digest. You go girl; i hopefully will share your pieces in workshops I conduct, if that’s okay with you. Best of luck.
Feel free. Let me know if you’re ever teaching in Dallas. Thanks.
one more thing: I adore the photo on your blog of the earnestness in the Boxer’s eyes, and the carrot nosed figure!
Thanks. As you can tell from the earnest look, the boxer isn’t mine. My girl’s online handle is blind dog.
Ah, you have the wit.
Hi,
Loved the post.
A long drive for a tree, I can understand why you would like golden apples to appear.
Thank You for the visit to my blog.
Yeah, someone on my side. Couldn’t she have just ordered it from the tree farm 20 minutes from my house?
Like some of your other commenters…
“Stores so crowded you have hair in your mouth and it isn’t yours.” -eeeu – very nasty
“Relatives who sign people up for dating services. That isn’t a gift even if you filled out the questionnaire and created the profile.” – now that’s downright weird.
Good list.
I take it you don’t want an application to join the weirdo family club?
Beautiful post!
Thanks
Haha what a great post. I hate crowded stores over christmas too…soo stressful!
Crowds in general make me jittery.
Fun post, Diedre. And thanks for taking the time to stop in and visit at my blog!
Thanks and you are most welcome.
I enjoyed reading tis… you may want to add in the hate section… Why people don’t smile during the holiday season? Am always asking them….
Do you get any good answers?
So, D…. I feel so bad about your -10 degrees I would love to send you some sun–plenty here in AZ… I think I have somewhere in my office one of those flat rate boxes, a large one. It should be enough to melt the snow in your driveway… just sayin’
Here at home it may be chilly but not -10. Luckily they save that temperature for the mountains. I couldn’t take it everyday.
Hi Deidra! Thanks for liking my post. Keep up the good work!
Hadass
Thank you and you’re welcome
Mmmm…hot chocolate. I need some examples of rumors you start. I wanna try that!
Good idea for a post topic. I’ve added it to my list. Thanks!
chocolate and alcohol. All year long.
I second that!
I hate the cold too. Loved your blog especially your first comment: “Stores so crowded you have hair in your mouth and it isn’t yours.”
Almost wet myself.
That’s a new one. I’m usually accused of choking people and causing them to spew liquid on their screens.
Hi! I saw you’d been over at my blog (thanks!) so I wanted to return the favor. Love your writing style
And that boxer-snowman staring contest photo is priceless!
Thank you. Hadn’t thought of it as a staring contest, but that’s the perfect caption.
I am SO glad that my relatives have not signed me up to dating services.. no presents for them next year!
Something to be thankful for.
So glad you liked my blog post, I’ve been looking around for a blog that is informative, funny and well written.
And I love ADORE that dog in the picture.
Can’t take credit for the dog or pictures, but the rest is mine. Thanks.
Thank you. That dog is hysterical.
I have to agree, I hate it when buying Christmas presents becomes a chore. It can be fun, but all too often it becomes something you HAVE to do. Thanks for stopping by my blog!
It’s great when you find just that perfect thing. But I’m never up for crowds.
I so love this article because as I was putting all the Christmas stuff away I was thinking more about the things I hate about Christmas than the things I love. Thanks for the reminder about the positive.
It’s so rare I have a positive influence.
I love everything about Christmas! But My favorite is the reading of the birth of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from Luke 2. We read it before we open gifts.
Oh, that family stuff never ends!.. First they keep telling you must meet somebody special (since it’s as easy as ordering a dinner in a restaurant). They give you about 2 months for dating before asking when you are getting married (because you control when-s and how-s and if-s of the potential proposal). Finally, you get married, and everyone feels obligated to remind you that the marriage is made for procreation… Even the kids don’t stop the endless requests, questions, and assumptions… Enjoy!
I think we must all make our decisions in our own time. I’m loving my life right now. Thanks.
Spot-on. These are a few of my un- and favorite things, too. But said in a much cleverer way!
Thank you. Don’t know about the clever part. I like to think of it as stupid on steriods.
Thanks Deidra for liking my post!
You are certainly welcome.
… what would we write about if we didn’t have all those of lovely bits mixed up with a little family trauma and drama? BTW – my office is a disaster – would you come and sort it out? Happy 2012 – Susan
I haven’t gotten my stuff put somewhere else myself, but the closet is spotless!
Loving the pros and cons. So much to relate to.
Guess I’m not the only one. Glad you can relate.
The crunch of snow and the silence of a bitter cold night.–I like this sentence,
thank you
Thank you
Never a truer word spoken. Hope Christmas is almost out of your system now
Only eleven and a half months to go…..
Only one or two more posts to go!
Haha so many good points! I love the part about ‘hair in your mouth and it isn’t yours.’ In Australia we had to endure 40 degrees Celsius weather over Xmas and New Years. It was really horrible too.
Thanks I was in Australia during our winter it was quite hot.
Hi Deirdra – thanks for stopping by my blog and liking it. Glad to have found yours – I definately appreciate your sense of humour
Thanks I enjoyed yours though I’m not cook. I’ll post some recipes some time and you’ll see what I mean.
Haha what a great post – made me laugh all the way through. I kept saying: “OMG ME TOO!” even though I don’t even celebrate Christmas! Definitely does sound like the holidays I do celebrate though!
Christmas may not be universal, but families certainly are.
It is the best time to remember precious childhood memories.
I remember the bad times with humor and the good times with love.
It says something about you that your Christmas likes exceed your dislikes. Nice about the hair in the mouth. I barfed a little.
Making someone barf before they’ve even seen me, now that’s a new one. I love it!
Never wear lip gloss when shopping at Christmas. It is a guarantee the hair will be in your mouth and as you said it WILL NOT be yours. Or worse stuck in their child’s candy covered fist.
Yotaki Beautywalk
Kids just lick the hair off though. LOL
Damn, you make me laugh!! I think I feel the same way about Christmas. Especially, the part about the crowds and the hair. I hate how close everyone is around that time. I think this year I’m doing all my shopping on Amazon lol
I hate that feeling of being packed in, like a sardine.
It is my honor to nominate you for the Versatile Blogger Award and you can see it at http://thomag2.wordpress.com I really like your site and I have gained such inspiration here. thanks.
Relatives who sign people up for dating services. That isn’t a gift even if you filled out the questionnaire and created the profile. <—- hahah, did not know people did that.
Ah you haven’t truly lived until you have people in your life more interested in your future than you are.
Deidra, I am pleased to present you with the Awesome Blog Content Award. Details can be found at http://letscutthecrap.wordpress.com/. Congratulations!
Ha, soo funny. I hate the same things. Still waiting for snow here in NYC and I love how stupid funny my three sisters are also! Great post!
Thanks. Sisters gotta love em, if I didn’t I would be in an institution by now.
I liked the ‘crazy elders’. Funny thing is, you’ll be at that point someday! Only one of my ‘crazy elders’ left, and the rest of my cousins (including myself!) are moving fast along the path leading to Crazy Elder Land. It’s as it should be.
HA! A dating service? That’s worse than the gift I get here in Brazil – a brochure to the “giver’s” plastic surgeon.
Did the pamphlet come with suggestions?
Had a tough time locating my picture after clicking the Like button, as there were millions already there….
Very briefly and nicely said.
Thank you. I appreciate every comment and your site made me laugh out loud.
I lucked out this Christmas being in a country that never heard of it…spent the day under the covers with a box of kleenex, and watching every movie I always wanted to see but didn’t have the time…was great.
That is my kind of Christmas or anytime.
Great post!
Thank you!
Alcohol and chocolate (definitely great things about Christmas). I’d love to have snow but it wasn’t cold enough this year..
Yeah, it’s already warmed up here too.
Hey you forgot relatives that sign YOU up for dating services!
You have relatives who sign you up for dating sevices? That has to be the most insulting gift ever!
Isn’t it though!
Thanks for reading our blog and the “like” for “A Fitting Birthday Dinner.” Read through your blog, love your stories and your writing style, we’ll be following you!!
Thank you. I appreciate the follow.
It’s late now, but I wish you well with the Writers’ Digest competition