In Anticipation

Reader Contribution by Becky And Andy
Published on December 19, 2010
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We have been so wrapped up in preparation for Christmas on the farm that we have barely had time to reflect on the reason behind all the busyness. It really is a shame that the holiday should be so stressful for most of those in our culture. There are so many expectations to fulfill. Gifts for everyone you know, including the trash man and your kid’s music teacher. Decorations with the latest LED drip lights that one-up the neighbor’s so-last-season LED icicle lights. A tree with themed ornaments. Is it real? Do you go artificial? Then there is the obligatory family portrait/Christmas postcard that goes out to 54 people on your list…in which you haven’t actually talked to 37 of them since you sent out last year’s portrait/postcard. Besides working full time, dealing with personal projects and perhaps raising a family, there are fund-raisers, donations and non-profits hoping for a piece of the Christmas financial pie.

It’s enough to make one want to write off the month before Christmas altogether. Here on the farm, we’ve been gripped with a terrible cold snap that hasn’t loosened in nearly two weeks. The animals are spending most their days indoors and the workers have been trying to do the same. Our kids have been begging to go outside to make snowmen, or snow angels or go sledding, but the wind and high temps of 10? have kept us with a myriad of excuses.

Andy and I have been working on some intense product promotion for St. Brigid’s that is not only time sensitive, but requires extra delivery days for us both. This week, we needed to deliver every single day instead of the typical three days/week pattern. It’s been exhausting to say the least, with late nights and early mornings keeping up with the orders and promotional emails.

But we are in the home stretch and look forward with great anticipation to the forthcoming weekend. We are traveling back to Omro area for Christmas Eve and Day. Then we’ll head back about halfway and spend the day with Andy’s family on the 26th.

From our ambitious beginning of the Christmas season back before Thanksgiving to now, there has actually been a lot of preparation for a thoughtful, genuine Christmas experience. I know that when I was growing up, as soon as the home was decorated for the season, everything took on a sort of magical anticipation of what was to come. As the early dusk set in, our timers would all click on and the house and yard took on a soft glow of whites and blues and reds. Some areas of the home were only lit by candles in the window or a string of colored lights above a mirror. It was cozy, inviting and made a great impression on me. In my time being on my own as a single adult, that feeling was hard to replicate in rented apartments and roommates with different opinions on how Christmas time should feel. I began to just forget about the act of decorating at all and making Christmas treats was pretty far from my mind.

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