Ok. I know it's a little blasphemous but...Christmas is not my favorite time of year

(Do you see the resemblance between me and this guy?  Read on and you will...)

It's toooooo busy.  Way tooo busy.  And soooooooooooooooooo commecialized.  And so expensive.  I feel obligated to buy presents for alot of people who I barely know and some I don't especially like.  I know, I know.  Call me a scrooge.  I'm really not.  There are aspects of the Christmas holiday that I DO like. 

I like the Christmas movies on Hallmark Channel

 (despite the bad acting and sappy story lines.)

I like that people - strangers- smile more, seemingly anyway.

I like that my kids get to spend time with my Father

(we don't get to see him as much as I would like but he NEVER misses Christmas with us)

I like that my kids are home from school for a nice long break.  

I like angel trees and anonymour donors and salvation army cans.

I like Christmas music.
 (THIS christmas I am especially enjoying Micheal Buble's new CD.)

Tacky Christmas sweaters make me laugh.

My Aunt's Prime Rib she serves ONLY on Christmas Day. 

(It is to DIE for.  Really.  I mean it.  If I am ever on death row and the prison ward asks me what I want my last meal to be it is going to be her Prime Rib, my mom's twice baked potatoes, and a rather large slice of my grandmother's chocolate cake.)

but I digress...

Let me tell you what I  don't like:

all the work of decorating
-and then after a week or two of it being out-

all the Christmas clutter

vacuuming up pine needles EVERYDAY

trying to figure out what to get for the person who has EVERYTHING

and for the person I BARELY know

or those who are like my brother and sister and are soooo hard to buy for because they are so dang PICKY

ALL the spending

ALL the shopping

the crowds at the mall

all the evening commitments -I think we had FIVE in the last week!

(although, I did enjoy that Cookie exchange this past Tuesday, that was kind of fun...)

I don't like the fact that I can never survive December without feeling like I am burning the candle at both ends.  I'm worn out. Partly because of my last "dislike"..

all the BAD food associated with the holidays.  When I eat bad, I feel icky for days.

Okay at the risk of being a TOTAL buzz- kill I'm gonna stop there.

I'll take a simple Easter or Valentine's Day or Thanksgiving ANYDAY over all the hubbub of Christmas.  Honestly, since I'm up on my soap box I'll just go ahead and say it.  I think it has become something the Savior would not necessarily want it to be.  The world feels like it is super distracted from the REAL reason we celebrate Christmas. 

Sunday our family is going to go to a local nursing care facility to sing Christmas Carols with some other awesome people that we know.  I can't wait.  So many of those people are sadly forgotten this time of year.  The Savior was a perfect example of seeking out the 1 lost little sheep even when it came at the expense of the 99 that were truckin' along just fine.  He went to the lepers and the outcast.  People that everyone else avoided.  It's my last ditch ever to not let the world take over our Christmas.  I really hope it is the one thing that my kids will remember about Christmas 2011.  That Spirit of serving others.  And trying our best to spread a little Christmas Cheer, even those of us...hmmm  hmmm, that don't have very much.