TBH, this is being written ahead of time and will be auto-posted so we don’t miss our regularly scheduled Wednesday posting time. As you can guess, most of the week has been taken up by last minute holiday prep. I’m fairly certain that everything has been purchased, packaged, posted, etc. There are a couple of piles of by the door separated by the days that we will visit those people in person. The only thing we still have to do is make the cheesy potatoes, but that won’t happen until the actual day of.
Things have been appropriately festive. We have attended the annual Bad Christmas Movie Night, a wonderful brunch with friends, and have been enjoying evenings lit by only tree lights and fire.
We have two trees, primarily to maintain peace in the house. The larger one (purchased for a dollar plus shipping decades ago) has the traditional ornaments while the smaller one in the other room has the weirder stuff. If you zoom in on the small one you will see an array of horror themed baubles among the Star Trek ships and Lament Configurations. In lieu of angels or stars, the small tree has Chernabog as envisioned by Disney. The larger tree has three ornaments shaped like winged paw prints bearing the names of our dogs who have passed.
Listening To: Yesterday I finished The House the Horror Built by Christina Henry and started Christmas and Other Horrors edited by Ellen Datlow.
Currently Reading: Sadly, I haven’t had much down time to read this week.
Current Obsession: End of the year prep.
Dragon’s Roost Press News
We are still focused on closing out 2024 which involves a lot of paperwork and tax prep. Sorry, nothing sexy this time around.
This Week’s Rambling: You Do What You Can
When The Mrs and I were first dating we tried to please and appease everyone. Anyone with family knows how difficult this can be when there are multiple gatherings which are naturally all at the same time. The was compounded by the fact that in true Gen X fashion, we both came from homes of divorce so now there were four potential family gatherings. Naturally, as a childless couple, we would be the ones out on the icy roads, shuttling from home to home.
For the first few years we actually attempted to hit all of the celebrations, but it just didn’t work. We missed all the meal times, we could never sit and enjoy anyone’s company, and the whole day felt rushed and full of stress. Now we have certain days where we see certain sides of the family, we are able to take our time and enjoying being around the people we care about.
Please learn from our earlier mistakes. Don’t make the holiday time a time of enforced responsibility. You are a grown ass person. Go where you want to go and get there when you want to get there. Leave when you have had enough. And if there is somewhere you don’t want to go (or someone you don’t want to spend time with), feel free to not go. You’re a grown ass adult. If you want to spend your day lounging around in your pajamas eating raw cookie dough, there is no one stopping you.
Happy Holidays from all of us at The Dragon’s Roost.