My husband, myself and little dog are together. Our son and his family were in from out of state for Christmas this past weekend through Tuesday, so our Christmas is a little fragmented this year. We just opened each others gifts and nothing fits! We are grateful for each other.
I am a throwback of the Donna Reed show and anything other than a perfect Christmas has never worked, yet trying to make it work for me has never worked. So this year I am doing everything other than what Donna Reed would do, and it is working.
For those alone, bless you and understand that the images of Christmas, family, snow, jingle bells, huge table with dozens gathered around, a beautiful tree singing are just images, that so many try to emulate and rarely achieve.
From that point on, I simply watched as her middle aged progeny died from alcoholism, pneumonia, a perforated duodenal ulcer (my mother), advanced Parkinson's, and senile dementia.
I left that whole thing when I went into the Army in 1971 and went from Philadelphia to the West Coast. I never looked back, and I don't regret it. They were always at each other's throats when they weren't at the "huge table."