The hardest holiday

It's never been a secret that I don't particularly care about xmas. And this year, it was harder to get through than any other I've ever experienced, and that includes the disaster of 2002.

To begin with, Rod went home for xmas. His mother couldn't bear not having him around, and I was both neither willing to go back to Edmonton so soon, nor could afford to go back, so...xmas without the most important person in your life is a less-then-stellar prospect. Rod was leaving very early Friday morning, and the night before we were meant to do our gift exchanging. It was also the night of his staff party, but I was too sick to attend, so I had to wait for him to come home.

To understand another factor in my black xmas, I have to take you back to last year. Rod forgot to stuff my stocking. I stuffed his full, and he forgot about it totally, so I felt a little let down. He tried to make up for it by shoving $100 into my stocking for my Boxing Day shopping. Well, this year, there was a bigger oopsie-daisy performed by Rod. This year, he came home from the staff party, took my stocking, and put all of my presents (regular and stocking) in...unwrapped. I was choked about that. It just screamed 'after thought' and therefore insensitive. I can deal with this, cause I'm the first person in line to tell everyone that life ain't a bowl of cherries. But the straw that broke the Ukranian's back** was yet to come.

Rod's parents sent us money to buy their presents to each of us with. Admittedly, Rod didn't get the most awesome presents from his parents, as I chose to buy him things he needed rather than things he wanted to play with, but I made sure they were nice presents. And on my birfday, when I said point blank that I thought his parents' gift to me should be the Anne of Green Gables DVD to replace my aging tapes, I thought it was going to be taken care of. I continued to remind him of this twice more before the big day. So when I pulled $40 out of the stocking and he said it was his parents' present to me for Boxing Day shopping, I lost it. It was rubbing a box of salt into a gunshot wound.

I'll admit it. I lost it.

I was so upset with him, I let him have it. The worst part is it wasn't one of my famous screaming fits. No, I was so upset, I could barely talk through the sobbing. I was going to be without him for xmas, I was sick, I was PMS'ing, I was depressed, and I was feeling so distraught over the after thought thing, that I said all kinds of things that weren't very nice. Go ahead, feel sorry for the guy. It was not pretty.

Fast forward a couple of days, my parents came over on xmas eve, and stayed until Boxing Day. I love them, no one can question that, but I've never needed any reminder of reasons why I don't live with them. I'm the queen bee of my little nest, and when others come into my house and disrupt my routine, I get irritable. It's clear proof that I wouldn't have made it as a boomerang kid. I appreciate them being here for xmas though.

And finally, the Boxing Day sales were a little disappointing. Mexx came through for me, as always, I can count on that gem to keep me in stylish and versatile clothes. But I walked into stores at Metrotown and the best deal they had to offer was 10% off new stock if purchased before 2 pm. Someone forgot to tell those geniuses that it's not a deal when the sale discount is less than the combined sales taxes. Seriously. I went to two different Mexx stores to spend all of my Boxing Day money. I tried! I really did! I know I should've gone down to Seattle :-s