...gripe, complain, blame

Christmas is a blast!  I love every moment of it from the Friday after Thanksgiving to the day after Santa shows up.  The only holiday season I don't like at all is the month of Halloween until just before December 1st....

...you know...that time when all the little people who aren't grown up enough to control themselves complain, whine, gripe, and cry about how Christmas has gotten out of hand in our culture.

After all, as they express the deep, terrible woes, there must be armed guards at the department store exits making them spend far too much money - at gun point.  Or maybe there are water-boarding stations in the toy stores for parents and grandparents who fail to spoil the kids with way too many toys and feed their greedy little "I gotta have that!" hearts with unnecessary pleasures. Why, who can blame them?  After all, they're so tired after putting up the way too big tree that cost way too much and required way too many new ornaments so the color theme matches the latest color predictions in Martha's magazine.  Who can be expected to deal with all this threat and the tension of not keeping up with dreamed up, pumped up expectations.  It's gotta be hard!

Who can resist the latest ornament designs?  Or the new tree lights shaped like bikini tops or high-heeled shoes?  And then there's the current Christmas edition of the American Girl doll collection and the latest Lennox serving tray and the fur timmed Christmas sweater that is essential for the 2 hour family dinner or local church program.

It's just too much...gosh, to resist would take a 20-nanosecond session of questioning one's motives ("Do I really have room for any more ornaments on the tree?).  Or maybe from birth, the kids might have been taught more about 'giving' than 'receiving.'  Then there's the plain white serving tray that could be garnished with a sprig of mint or cilantro and some red hots.

I know it's hard and I just hope and pray all those poor, helpless, spineless little adults can get their acts together and think for themselves for once.  Then perhaps they can just shut up and let the rest of us enjoy the true, sacred, generous season of giving.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT.