Wishing you a drama free Christmas

Ahhhh the holidays....full of fun, tradition, food, laughter and drama. Yes, that is right. Even though no one ever admits that drama is a major portion of the holiday season, I am here to tell you that they are wrong! What drama am I talking about, you ask? Let me count the ways!

1. Gift giving drama: who do I get presents for, what do I get them, what if I get them something and they don't get me anything? How much will I spend, where will I get it, will they like it, and on and on and on. What about those unexpected gift givers that show up Christmas Eve and hand you a gift and you stand there like an idiot with empty hands and a goofy smile on your face? What do you do then? Drama my friend. Drama.

2. Scheduling drama: where will we spend Christmas Eve, where will we spend Christmas day, what parties will we attend, what will we do for Christmas, who will be there, who can't be there, how will we get there? Someone is going to be upset that someone else is not coming. You cannot please everyone, henceforth, drama.

3. Miscellaneous drama: Who will cook, what are we eating, when are we eating, where are we eating, who will clean up afterward? What is the weather going to be like when we have to drive somewhere? Where is the tag to this gift? Who does it go to? What did we forget to wrap? What did we forget to bring? Sounding familiar? Drama!

Beyond that, if you are extra special, you get the really dramatic stuff. This sister doesn't want to attend Christmas because that other sister will be there. This child is not getting along with that parent, so they will only come get their gifts when the parent is gone. This married couple wants to spend 80% of their time with the fun side of the family, and 20% of their time with the boring side of the family, and the boring family is upset that they don't get more time and probably also upset that they are thought of as boring.

It just makes you smile, doesn't it? Either way, if this sounds like your family or not, you are probably smiling about it. If you are telling yourself that you are lucky that your family doesn't do that sort of thing when the holidays come around, and smiling because you think it will always be that way, don't worry, it won't. If you are smiling because it sounds all too familiar and you think to yourself that those descriptions sound exactly like your crazy family, you should know that they probably think of your family drama as a result of your behavior. But either way you're smiling, right?

For the record, this holiday was a little lower on the drama scale for me. But that was probably because the dramatic ones did not come, and the non dramatic ones did not care that the others didn't come. So I say, embrace the drama, embrace the craziness, put a big goofy smile on your face and just let it ride! And tell your friends "Merry Christmas and a drama free New Year!"