Normally, I am a bit fanatical about the holidays. It's all about the atmosphere, the right foods, the traditions, and of course the meaning and reasons we as people and cultures celebrate these festival days at all.
But for some reason this year I am not feeling the holiday juices flowing.
I completely forgot about Halloween, and Reformation Day until the neighborhood gathered for a little party.
I am unmotivated about Thanksgiving.
I am excited about Christmas primarily because we will have more family here, but little else about it has entered my mind.
Last year I was very inspired by Lenten practices and started reading more about the Orthodox Church Calendar, which has reminded me that sometimes the routines and disciplines whether daily or yearly are the very things that help you enter in to a place of worship and joy in the life you are living.
Yesterday the kids rolled out of bed from their afternoon naps and I slapped a few lines on their faces that resembled a kitten, then belted up an old sweatshirt to look like Robin Hood's. We meandered outside to see our friends and some new faces at a neighborhood outdoor party, and then returned home to share homemade pizza and hand out candy to trick-or-treaters.
I was thankful my children were unaware and unperturbed by my lackluster planning for the day, but am hoping in the days to come my enthusiasm looks a little more like my father's as he showed number one grandson how to bob for apples yesterday, and a little less like my thrown together costumes.
One advantage to living overseas is that on those holidays when I just can't muster, nobody really misses it that much.
ReplyDeleteSorry I missed your dad bobbing for apples, though. That would have been a sight to see.
We really didn't do anything either and I was just telling Shane how I felt bad at my lack of effort...it does take so much more effort here since there is no one else planning...we did watch Luther though...no planning required.
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