1442: Yearly Wasteland

We’ve reached that peculiarly barren time of year — it’s no longer Christmas, but it’s not quite New Year either. Some unlucky people have to go back to work for a few days — Andie is one of them — while the rest of us bum around, twiddling our thumbs and wishing we had more presents to open. (Actually, we will have a few more presents to open on New Year’s Day, which is nice. I think I know what mine will be, and if I’m right I’ll be very pleased with it.)

I feel a bit frustrated by the holiday season at the moment. I miss the “magic” it used to have when I was a kid. I’m not sure quite when it stopped being exciting and fun, but it’d be nice to get that back.

I’ve mentioned before my curious inability to express genuine-seeming outward signs of excitement, surprise or anything like that, and I have a feeling that may be something to do with it. I love opening presents and getting cool stuff, but I hate the pressure there is to look pleased with what you got. Everyone who buys you something is almost inevitably looking carefully at your face to see if you smile, grin, laugh or look disappointed at the things that have been purchased for you, and given that I feel enormously self-conscious about getting excited or joyful, my reaction often appears to be somewhat more “meh” than it actually is. I generally do like presents, whatever they are — because I’m not an ungrateful twat who returns gifts that other people have bought for him — and I am always appreciative when someone thinks of me and buys me something nice. It’s just sometimes a bit difficult to show.

Same with New Year’s. Everyone builds it up to be some kind of massive big deal, so when the time comes to actually say “Happy new year!” to people I feel very self-conscious and stupid. It feels like a cliche to say it. Well, it is a cliche to say it, but surely there’s no better time to actually say “happy new year!” to someone than at one minute past twelve on New Year’s Day. Garrgh.

One day I might get over all these stupid neuroses. Sadly, that day is not today, so if you are, by any chance, hanging out with me for New Year celebrations at any point in the future, I apologise in advance for my seeming lack of enthusiasm about the year increasing by one.

We’re off out to a party at my friend Tim’s tomorrow night to ring in the new year. There will be sausages. And no, that’s not a euphemism; the plan is actually for there to be lots of sausages. This is a situation I am absolutely fine with.

There will be one last post of 2013 before the new year — that will hopefully be before midnight, if I remember — and then it’s onward to 2014 and great things. Or just the same things as usual, but with a different number in the “YYYY” section of forms.

Anyway. Happy holidays or whatever.

1071: Christmas Eve

It’s Christmas Eve. Technically it’s almost Christmas Day. Exciting, huh?

I’ve noted this for the past few years, but I find it tough to get really excited about Christmas these days. I’m pretty sure this is fairly common for people once they get beyond a certain age, but it’s felt particularly pronounced for the past few years. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve had a few Christmases that haven’t been particularly merry, or because I’ve had a few years where my life hasn’t been exactly what I’d call “on track”, but eh. Whatever.

This year, theoretically, I am enjoying a Christmas where my life is getting back to where it should be; to where I want it to be. This is good. It still feels a little difficult to enjoy it though, to find it easy to lighten up, chill out and just accept that things are nice. The holiday season doesn’t magically make your anxieties and worries go away, sadly, as these are things that stick with you through the best and worst of times.

But let’s try not to be overly negative about the whole thing. Tomorrow is a day for eating to excess, for opening presents, for relaxing and doing as little as possible. It may lack that childish excitement over whether or not there’s, say, a Super NES under the tree (largely because I am now old and affluent enough to purchase myself the modern-day equivalent the Wii U if I want one) and it may lack that particular “spark” that believing in Father Christmas involves, but it’s a time of peacefulness, of trying to set your worries aside, and of enjoying good food and good company.

I’m sure tomorrow will be fine. And once the holiday season has passed by, we can really start to look forward to whatever it is the future holds. Hopefully the things that the future hold are good, and I can start enjoying life a bit more. That’d be nice. I would like to enjoy life a bit more.

Merry Christmas to everyone reading this. I hope you have a thoroughly pleasant day tomorrow, and eat your fill of turkey, stuffing, those little sausages wrapped in bacon and sprouts. (My fill of sprouts is “no sprouts”. It is not hard to eat my fill of sprouts. Sprouts are disgusting.)

#oneaday, Day 343: Boxing Day

Christmas is over for another year, and so here we are on Boxing Day (or actually the day after if you’re operating on UK time)—a day which apparently isn’t particularly well-known in the US. In all honesty, it’s not particularly well-known in the UK, either, aside from the name. It’s just “the day after Christmas”.

There’s plenty of things that can be done on Boxing Day, and they tend to vary according to your age.

If you’re a young kid, Boxing Day is a day to spend playing with all the presents you got and suffering from some pretty severe analysis paralysis while you work out what to do next. When you have the amount of choice most kids get these days after receiving a veritable truckload of presents, it’s easy to see how they might get overwhelmed with things to choose from.

If you’re a bit older, Boxing Day is probably a day for a hangover, whether it be caused by excess of alcohol, excess of food or, more likely, both. It also marks the beginning of The Great Leftovers Season, by the end of which you will never, ever want to see turkey ever again, whether it’s on a plate with potatoes and gravy, stuffed into a sandwich, made into a curry or whatever vaguely inventive ways you’ve come up with to use turkey. Turkey is, of course, a meat which barely gets eaten throughout the rest of the year. Is this because it’s just like an enormous dry chicken? Or is it because we eat so much of it throughout the holiday season that no-one can bear the thought of eating it again at any point in the rest of the year?

It’s a pretty universal constant whatever your age, though, that the day after Christmas is for resting, sleeping, lolling on the couch (the original meaning of lolling, not the Internet meaning) and watching the DVDs that were inevitably in your Christmas stockings.

There’s an exception, though: households which got a Wii or Kinect for Christmas. The Wii and Kinect get people up and about a little bit more than they would otherwise be, since they’re popular gifts with kids and adults alike, and they require that you get off your turkey-filled ass and jump around. Quite literally in the case of Kinect.

Incidentally, if you are still a Kinect doubter, I defy you not to at least find the damn thing clever as hell. Yesterday we were trying it out and didn’t have enough space to play with two people on Kinect Adventures, so we moved the couch back a bit. By the time we’d turned back to the screen, the game was asking if we’d like to play two-player mode. Without us telling it. Witchcraft and sorcery!

Hope you’ve all had a suitably festive festive season and have some appropriately awesome plans for the new year. 2011 better not suck as much as 2010, though I recall saying something very similar at the end of 2009 so I’m not going to hold my breath until something actually awesome happens!