We caught the last two minutes of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on TV yesterday afternoon while dh was channel-surfing ("Christmas day is in our grasp/So long as we have hands to clasp") -- and that got me bawling my eyes out.
Then we turned to... "A Christmas Story" -- which happens to be my mother's favourite Christmas movie, because it reminds her so much of her own childhood in 1940s/50s Minnesota. (We love it too!) I held it together until near the very end, when (spoiler alert! lol) Ralphie finally unwraps his much longed-for BB-gun. I looked at the old-fashioned Christmas tree, with the softly glowing big coloured lights, and I thought about how my mother always wants our Christmas tree at home to look JUST LIKE THAT, and I had to bring out out the Kleenex again. Then, just before the credits rolled, they showed Ralphie & his brother Randy asleep in their side-by-side twin beds, Randy clutching his toy Zeppelin and Ralphie with his beloved gun. I thought about how I'll never look in on my sleeping children like that -- and I lost it again.
Dh looked at me quizzically and said, "Do we dare watch 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' next??" (We didn't. At least, not this particular viewing... we may still catch it later elsewhere!)
I expect to be losing it again (and again, and again) over the next few weeks, as I spend my first-ever Christmas away from my family, once again under lockdown.
Curse you, COVID-19. :(
How are you holding it together during this strange Christmas season? (ARE you holding it together??)
You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.
I am usually a bit of a sentimental sap too, but it sounds like this year you have me well and truly beaten! lol I'm sorry you're finding it tough. It's hard when it has been the habit of a lifetime. But at least you know that signs are looking better for next year. It's a "not this year" situation, rather than a "never again" situation.
ReplyDeleteChristmas for us is going to be a bit weird this year too, in that we will be spending it with my northern sister, and my southern sister is flying up to join us. It will be our second Christmas together since our mother died, and, without my nieces and their families as well, it will definitely feel a bit weird. And of course D and I won't have to worry about his father this year either. In some ways I would be quite happy to be spending my Christmas solo, just the two of us, doing exactly what suited us for the first time ever (well, except for when we have travelled on Christmas Day). I hope you can come to enjoy it, embrace it even. I see that with Christmas baking, you've got a start on that!
Sending hugs.