Christmas break comes with various family obligations and church stuff. Most of it I manage to dodge, but thanks to the terms of the tenuous truce with my parents about attendance, I’m stuck at home most of the pre-Christmas week.
Mom’s determined to decorate like always. Maybe she’s forgotten that it was Sheila who cared. Or maybe it’s because of that.
No one knows what to do with her stocking. Putting out only three looks weird and feels wrong. But will it be weirder to have all four laid out for advent, only to have one still empty on Christmas morning? An inordinate amount of my brain space goes toward this problem.
“We could skip it,” I say to Mom, in case it hasn’t occurred to her. “Who wants to buy stocking stuffers, anyway?”
“Don’t start with me,” she snaps. Case closed.
So it’s like that around here.
Consequently, whenever Matt texts me to come over, there’s always something going on that gets in the way. I find myself relieved.