Christmas decorations

I’ve always liked the holiday season. From elementary school, through high school, college, and now back to high school, the holidays allow for a recharge of my batteries. Christmas will get here sooner than later, but oddly enough, I like the small break for Thanksgiving a little better. Here is a look at why Thanksgiving break is better for me:

1. The first break
This is the first, real, vacation as an educator. Most employers give this as a long break as well (unless you work in retail). Yes, we’ve had a couple of long weekends, but this is the first five-day weekend. As my intro alluded to, it’s enjoyable because I can recharge, reflect, and relax. And grade papers.

2. Gathering of families and friends
My uncle makes a mean smoked turkey. And normally, I’m one of the two or three that will eat the juicy, smoked dark-meat the weekend before the holiday. That’s right. My family usually meets the weekend before the actual holiday, so it’s an appetizer to the government-issued day off. (Fact: President Lincoln made Thanksgiving an official holiday.) Usually we all eat too much, talk about Christmas, and have a good time watching a game. Thanksgiving day we go to Nicole’s side to get stuffed to the brink of unconsciousness yet again. The food is always good, and it’s always fun to catch up and meet “new” family members (babies are contagious).

3.The food
As if I need to go into any more detail on food (note – I started the last point with a food reference). But Rob, Christmas has great food too! Yes it does. But we don’t give Buzz Aldrin as much credit for stepping on our moon second, so why give Christmas dinner as much credit for being the second holiday with a big feast? Plus, Christmas gets presents, so there’s that.

4. Sports
Yes, I’m giving a whole point just to sports. College football is winding down, which means the games have that much more importance. College basketball is just starting up. I’m watching with a whole new set of eyes (figuratively and literally with Faith). Nothing is better than getting overly stuffed, with nowhere else to go, and vegging out in front of a good (and hell, even a bad) game.

5. Christmas decorations

Griswold’s 250 strands of lights, 100 bulbs per strand.

Finally, this is probably the most important point, now I get to put up decorations. Thanksgiving break is the best time to put up all of my Christmas gear. I don’t have Clark Griswold’s 250 strands of lights, but I do enjoy putting up lights and decorations around the house. It affirms that I am doing things right in my life. This year I put up the tree with Faith in my arms. She helped me unfold the branches on the tree (although, she did try to eat a few of those branches). After some initial heckling, Nicole really likes all of the new lights this year (new lights on our little tree in the back yard, on the roof, and the lit mailbox from her grandpa).

So with basketball season’s games starting this week, I may not get to blog as much as I (or my wife) would like. Thanksgiving is the start of it all, Christmas is the peak, and the New Year is the hangover. No matter which you enjoy the most, I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday season!

~Rob