Holiday Spirit?

Christmas has officially thrown up in my house as much as it ever does. We are not the overachieving family; we don’t even put up any lights outside. I reserve our decorating to a small confined area of the house that takes about ½ the time to take down as it did to put up. I do follow the tradition of putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving and in that time I like to have holiday music going in the background and it is ever so much more happy if the weather outside is below 80 degrees (pretty nice for Florida). 

This year it was like pulling teeth to get the kids involved. The teenager did her duty with dignity and the right amount of kissing mom’s butt to appease her. The boy and the little one were not remotely interested in getting the tree up. Internally I was thinking “whoa” is this the sign that my young ones have stopped believing? Has the magic of Christmas left my home? I’m not ready for that reality! I mean I’ve joked about it for years but now that I’m on the cusp of this thing, this non-magical, no longer being able to frightened them in to good behavior by the mere mention of Santa’s name, no longer able to look at their innocent little faces and see the twinkle of Christmas in their eyes (okay maybe I’m exaggerating here), the love of Christmas will be reduced to “here mom, here’s my list”. 

I mean seriously what is wrong with this picture “the teenager” appeased me but not my 11 and 8 year old!?! Is this the twilight zone? I think at this point I’m the bigger kid than they are. I love the old movies and cannot wait to watch White Christmas and It’s a wonderful life. It’s pretty bad when my loving husband can see the look on my face, take pity on me and leaves the Christmas music on for a full 30 minutes after walking in the door just in an attempt to make me happy. 

In my head we should be some damn corny movie from back in the day. I want the whole shebang and I don’t think I should have to settle. I want the house that looks like a damn magazine spread, with the music playing in the background and the roaring fire, the dancing in our living room for no other reason than that we are so taken up by the feeling of the season it overwhelms our desire to do anything else. Is that too much to ask? Really? Okay I’m delusional, but it makes me smile so it’s harmless enough.