Holidays!

Today, Sue and I put up a bunch of our Christmas decorations. For some reason, I always (for the past few years at least) get depressed putting up the decorations. I don't recall if this happened when I was younger, but it happens in spades now.

There's nothing tangible causing the depression, and once they're up, I'm glad they're there. I just get very down when they're actually going up. It's strange, I know...

In general, I do enjoy the Christmas holidays. I like seeing family, friends, and just having the time off. There's no great religious piece for the holidays to me, but I do look at this time as a period of reflection on the year gone by, and the upcoming year/years. I *don't* do new years resolutions or anything like that. I actually think of New Years as a pretty fake holiday. If friends are doing a party or getting together, or hanging out, I'm happy to do that, but I'm not really that into the whole New Years idea.

It's been hard this year to get into the whole Christmas gift giving spirit, as I'm not really sure what to get people. I also tend to get people things that I think they'd like, or that I think they *should* like. That's one reason why I like to actually spend time with people around the holidays, versus having to do the whole gift exchange thing, I'd rather build experiences and friendships/relationships with people, versus just handing over a gift.

Also, I haven't been able to think up some really good gifts this year. I think I've been kind of consumed with the move down here and the new job, so it's been hard to get out of my own head, and into a space to think about others as much as I'd like to at this time of year.

As a kid, I think it was Christmas of 1974, we were on a family vacation down to Florida/DisneyWorld. (It may have been Christmas of 1975, I'm not exactly sure, but if I had to bet money, I'd bet on '74). I remember coming back to the hotel room, and there were two wrapped gifts on the bed, one for me and one for my brother. I remember being so surprised that Santa knew where to come down to deliver our gifts to us. I got a Lego set, your basic building blocks to build a small house. I had those for quite a long time, and I remember that as a very fun, happy Christmas.

For being so young, I actually do remember bits and pieces of that vacation. I also remember getting chicken-pox in the January after getting back. My brother got them first, then I got them. I vaguely remember him getting them, but I have no real memory of me having them. I've probably blocked that out!

So, for this holiday, I hope I get to see a lot of people. It'll be nice to actually be in NJ, and not have to do the big drive from New Hampshire down here.

I'm not quite sure if this entry is what Queenie was looking for in her blog, but it's what I came up with...

Enjoy! More to come...

NP: Bill Bruford's Earthworks - Original Sin (23/24 June 2001)