The Christmas that wasn't

OK, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. Here's the story: the BF and I decided to stay here on the East Coast this year instead of going to see relatives for Christmas, both for monetary and sanity reasons. This is the first time either one of us has not spent Christmas with one or both of our families. But we were both kind of looking forward to finally having the holiday to ourselves, rather than shuttling back and forth between families, worrying about the cat while we're away, waiting in crowded airports and on crowded runways, paying exorbitant prices for a bottle of water, etc. Oh yeah, and not having to put up with the more annoying elements of our respective relations. But we've found that Christmas on our own isn't quite as much fun as we'd imagined. Here's a quick rundown of how we've so far spent this much-anticipated holiday:

11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.: Bake "traditional" Christmas fare (BF=banana bread, me=apple pie, chex mix)

4:30 p.m.: Go for walk around neighborhood. Weather is clear and a balmy 55 degrees Fahrenheit, after weeks of cold-ass wintry conditions. Feels a bit non-Christmasy.

5:00 p.m. - Play rousing game of Trivial Pursuit. Decide to quit after 25 minutes.

5:35 p.m. - Eat dinner of canned soup. Watch surfing documentary (BF's idea, but is oddly amusing.)

7:00 p.m. - Turn off the TV. Try to think of something else to do.

7:30 p.m. - Turn to one another, amidst a metaphorical chorus of chirping crickets. "So. This is why people visit other people during the holidays."

We are now sitting in separate rooms, me writing a blog entry, and BF looking at other people's digital photos on the Internet. It's not that we're homesick, though I suppose maybe we are a bit. It's just that we've spent the better part of every day this week together, and frankly, we would gladly welcome the addition of a third (or fourth, maybe even fifth) party. We've watched all the movies we want to watch, we've seen the National Christmas Tree (not that impressive), and we've played every game that can be played with only two people (that would be Trivial Pursuit). Our neighborhood is shut down and locked up tight; I think we're the only people still left in our building, possibly in all of Arlington. We, in short, are bored.

Personally, there's a part of me that really misses going to church at Christmas (though this feeling oddly disappears the rest of the year); I feel a little lost without the Christmas mass to anchor me to the holiday and the season. When I was growing up, going to church on Christmas Eve was the final obstacle standing between me and Christmas morning. Once church was over, the real fun could begin. In traditional Catholic manner, we had to work for redemption (i.e. gifts), but the relief of the work being over was almost as sweet as the reward itself. As I got older, I liked going to church on Christmas for different reasons, but the most important was that it had become the cornerstone of our family's celebration of the holiday - buying a new outfit to wear to church, getting all dressed up, singing carols before mass, admiring the church all decoratedwith lights and flowers, listening to the Christmas story for the millionth time, and ending the mass with a jubilant version of Joy to the World, knowing that an abundance of presents lay in wait for me. To be honest, the religious messages of Christmas were never very meaningful to me, but now that I'm no longer a practicing Catholic I miss that element of the holidays a little bit. Without mass, Christmas feels much like any other day, and it disorients me. I thought about finding a Catholic church that I could attend for just this one evening, but for some reason I didn't. I guess now that I don't believe in the teachings of the church I thought it would be too hypocritical to attend mass just to satisfy my need for a little "tradition."

So the only thing left to do is drink.

Merry Christmas!