The Friday Morning Listen: Vince Guaraldi Trio – A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

Last year, after a couple of trips to the hardware store, it appeared that we had enough hooks to decorate our Christmas tree. True to form, shortly after stocking up we managed to find the “lost” hooks and now have enough to hang stuff on a tree suitable for Rockefeller Center.

Also last year, I said that it felt very strange going through these activities with neither of my parents around. In fact, it still feels that way, and it bugs me that I never asked either of my folks how they felt about it in their own situations. I was pretty sure that by now, most of these feelings would have faded somewhat, but then I open the box that holds the ceramic Christmas tree that Mom made (during the great ceramics fad of the 1970’s) — the very same tree that I brought to the nursing home so Dad could have it in his window seat — and well…no, those lines of thought are still around.

Don’t mistake this as some kind of lament about the season. No, me and TheWife™ have had this past week off together and if you ask us, it’s the perfect way to close out the year. We’ve gotten some stuff done, cooked some great dinners, and have spent a lot of time catching up on our reading. After what seemed like a pressure-laden year of work, it’s about all we could ask for.

It seems that people have a tendency to get all freaked out this time of year, either from the stress created by the responsibilities of celebration (read: shopping, cooking, entertaining) or the depression born of loneliness. I’ve experienced the former, but never the latter. My tendency to yearn for solitude makes the concept of loneliness during the holidays seem like a mystery. Some quiet music, a cup of tea…many afternoons are passed in this way.

My introverted and introspective self wants to sit down and ponder what all of this will be like five or ten years from now. Luckily, there’s a more practical part of me that knows this is a bad idea — that it’s more important to just enjoy the season, not worrying about anything more deep than how many onions I’ll need for the pierogi tonight.

Merry Christmas everybody.