Single at Christmas

I've got Christmas spirit coming out my ears right now, friends.  The tree is up, the house is decorated, presents are being wrapped, I've made my shopping list for cookie ingreedients, christmas music is playing, and I have drunk an inordinate amount of Candy Cane Lane tea (that stuff is good - now, could someone get me a bottle glass of red wine?).  I'm happy to be home for the holidays and to be getting ready to celebrate and say goodbye to the last crazy (but usually great!) year. 

(Yes, the bottom 1/3 of our tree is nearly bare.  This is because someone can't be trusted with low-hanging lights and ornaments...)

However, it seems like everyone and their brother is getting engaged/married/pregnant right now and, I'm not going to lie, as a single lady ("all the single ladies...") at the holidays, it's not always easy to watch friends run off with the person of their dreams, while I'm still waiting for mine to come sweep me off my feet.  You might guess that I've been down in the dumps, wishing the holidays away, becoming bitter, drinking myself to sleep and eating myself into a food coma - ok, maybe that's a little extreme...  But, I'm not!  I'm perfectly fine.  In fact, I'm better than fine.  I'm actually sort of HAPPY to be single right now. 

Let's get real for a moment, folks.  For the last 5 years (except for that one year where I broke up with a certain someone 2 weeks before Christmas - that sucked), while Christmas time has been wonderful, it's also been filled with the stresses that come with being in a serious-but-not-super-serious relationship.  First of all, I'm the kind of person who racks her brain for WEEKS, trying to come up with the PERFECT present for the person I'm dating.  It should be just the right amount of expensive, thoughtful, meaningful to him, and should make me appear to be the best girlfriend in the entire world.  Then, once said gift is found, I scour the aisles of Target to pick out the exactly perfect wrapping paper and bow.  (Raise your hand if you think I need to get a grip.)  Wow.  Second, when you're in a serious-but-not-super-serious relationship, your significant other is bound to want to see you on Christmas Day.  This is, of course, lovely, but also requires a whole heck of a lot of planning and coordinating.  It also means that both parties inevitably have to split time with their families.  Finally, holiday time usually makes everyone who is in a serious-but-not-super-serious relationship wish and hope that very soon the "-but-not-super-serious" gets dropped from the relationship status.  That's not stressful, is it?

This year, with all of those stressors gone, I'm focusing my energy on enjoying my close friends and family.  I have extra money to spend on my chubby little nephew and other family members' gifts.  I have the entire day of Christmas to spend lazing around with said family, being as informal as I want (hold onto your hats, family!), maybe going to a movie with my mom and sister, and just generally soaking up as much family Christmas love as possible.  I figure that, as the years pass, the chance that I'll be snatched up by a wonderful fellow, who is willing to put up with my crazy and follow me to obscure locations around the world, increases exponentially (duh).  So, I should enjoy this holiday, when I have no commitments to anyone but myself, my family and my close friends.  And that's exactly what I'm doing!  I'm enjoying the crap out of it.

I hope very much that you are all having a wonderful holiday season as well and that Christmas cheer has taken you over and subsequently shoved plenty of butter- and sugar-laden cookies down your throats.

Oh, and please spread the word:  I am currently taking applications for New Years Eve dates.  The pile of applicants is getting pretty tall, but I'm still willing to consider more.  (I mean, let's not go crazy with all of this "I love being single around the holidays" stuff.)

Now, someone turn up the Christmas music and bring me that wine!



Merry Christmas to all...

Love, Katie