The day is finally coming to a close and I find myself more jostled than jolly. Holiday nostalgia creates a silent but steady pressure to ensure this is the best time of the year, but sometimes it’s not.
A few weeks ago Leif was driving back from Durango, Colorado, when the transmission in our car went out. After being towed back to Denver, we waited on parts and repairs and finally picked up the car three days ago.
This week we discovered a pipe burst in our house and filled our downstairs bathroom and guestroom with water.
The days leading up to Christmas this year have been filled with tow trucks, car repairmen, insurance adjusters, plumbers (no, he wasn’t named Joe) and more. The upcoming weeks will be filled with painters, drywallers, carpet layers, and electricians. Meanwhile, the event we had planned on attending today was cancelled last minute, so the holiday was anything but what we expected or had planned on.
No worries. We watched Up in the Air and turkey is ready to be pulled from the oven!
I’d like to think I’m the only one feeling jostled except my dear friend who went to Phoenix for the holidays ended up stranded with a flat tire on Christmas Eve, another friend can’t find employment, my neighbor whose leaky roof not only caused damage but will require replacing (ka-ching!) and another neighbor was driving their moving truck to California on Christmas morn without their home here having sold.
The list goes on.
Some Christmases are warm and snuggly cinnamon-flavored, pine-scented affairs, but others are filled with roof leaks, broken pipes, stranded passengers, painful memories, awkward moments and more. If yours was of the latter kind, be encouraged: You are not alone.
Next year we will all recall, “Do you remember when…?”
Sometimes Christmas is more of a jostle than a jolly event…and I think that’s okay and normal, too!
So for everyone who didn’t have the merriest Christmas of all… we will get through it together. See you in the gym come January.
