It's Christmas Time... in the City.

This year Christmas has once again proved to be more stressful than joyous. The traffic, and the spending of money, and then the congregating is exhausting, and draining, and a myriad of other negative adjectives that I will not exercise here.

And speaking of exercise, I know that I will be spending the better part of January on the treadmill or pounding the pavement to rid myself of the excess pounds put on during the holidays.

The worst part of the holidays for me is the obligation. I feel obligated to visit old friends, buy presents for people that I love even though I can't afford it, and make phone calls to distant friends just to say hello because it is Christmas time.

Why can't the holidays just be a simple Happy Birthday Jesus, a simple party to the one we love, a blessed gathering of friends and family, celebrating the birth of our Lord instead of a megafeast, followed by unwrapping of gifts which are sometimes way off the mark and very disappointing, then a massive amount of clean up?



Christmas for me has become one great big disappointment.