All I Want For Christmas

Is some freakin' holiday spirit.

Christmas has never been one of my favorite holidays. I much prefer Easter. You still get to dress up, go to a friggin' long mass, and have a nice meal with friends and family afterward, but you don't have the pressure to get gifts, decorate your house, write a gazillion cards, etc. Okay, so the hymns aren't as good, but most of the Christmas ones get butchered anyway, so . . .

This year I'm crankier than most. I don't want to travel; I don't want to spend my only long weekend between now and Memorial Day stuck at my parents' house; I don't want to load my credit card with even more debt to put my dog in boarding and my car in a parking lot; I don't want to deal with cranky drivers and rude people at the airport. Making gifts this year has become an albatross; I don't enjoy crafting when I'm rushing through it just to get it done. Which admittedly is my own fault for not being more diligent throughout the past four months. Even the vendor gifts at work have become a source of stress; we have more food than we know what to do with, but we get bent out of shape if someone takes the goody we wanted (and I'm guilty of this, I know).

I don't think I'm alone in this. Seems that most people are finding the holiday spirit to be especially elusive this year.

What's the deal?