When 42 comes to call

My birthday always marks the end the holiday season for me, and the end is highly anticipated.  In general i can't say that our family ever did really well with the whole holiday season.  There were the obvious things like trying to figure out whether we were/are jewish or christian, growing up thousands of miles from extended family and then just the usual weird family holiday stress that families around the globe experience.  Needless to say, childhood set the tone and by the time i hit my 20's i was regularly leaving the country for christmas, and avoiding family thanksgivings (to the complete annoyance of my oldest sister). Getting through my birthday meant all the "celebrations" were done, and the world was headed toward spring after months of cold weather and excessive spending meant to make us all feel good.

After years of fleeing from my childhood i then decided to cave in and just wade through these months and hope for the best.  Over the past 10 years i have had any number of really good individual holidays-a good new year celebration here, a perfect turkey there, christmas presents i needed, but still, the overall 3 month period felt hard and running away, or out of the country still wasn't working.  i'm sure you think i'm building up to one of those hollywood movie endings where i state that this year that all changed, but i'm not, well not quite..

However, while this year was filled with many of the same things that each year is filled with- large periods of stress, family fighting, too much work, not enough time....  it also miraculously included several of the best holiday celebrations i have ever experienced, and it culminated in a near perfect birthday-actually maybe perfect when you count the long anticipated blue egg laid on my birthday by my crankiest, most high strung, most likely candidate-for-the-soup-pot-chicken, Byrd.  This act went a long way toward redeeming her in my eyes.

In retrospect i think what was so great about so many of the celebrations this year was this theme that has been running through my brain (even if i am not consistently able to make it run through my life).  Live simply, eat good food and celebrate with friends.  Thanksgiving, chirstmas, and my birthday all included these things.  Homemade food, good company and really nice people who all got along.  It included very little excessive spending, and a great deal of love.

Will i look forward to next years holiday season in anticipation-probably not, but i certainly know that a really good thanksgiving makes up for alot of lost time.

Here (in my book) is the simple answer to a good holiday season-surround yourself only with people who you love and who treat you well.  You can do this in any city.