Ghost of Christmas Past

I learned that since my parents divorced Christmas felt like school or work. Having to be up at a certain time to be somewhere, feeling obligated, scheduled and stressed and I’m talking about approximately the last 15 years. I’m not blaming this on them because there are a ton of other factors in the mix as well, if anything its my fault for setting up this predetermined set of rules to abide by every year and stressing myself out and never saying, “No, not this year”, or “No I’ll be there between this time and this time” and the hefty “No, I’m at so and so’s this year”. I just had the most relaxing, not-so-dramatic Christmas ever. Why do holidays have to be so dramatic anyway? Don’t answer that because it’s a different experience for everyone especially those with traditions. Now that I’ve shed the demonic stress layers from Christmas pasts I can look ahead to 2008 and say, “Hey, Christmas isn’t so bad,” but New Years is always even better.