So you may remember that I had a lack of Christmas spirit last year, to say the least.  Well this year I set out to change that (in a “you’re gonna feel the Christmas spirit dammit” type way).  So I asked my mom if I could have some of her Christmas decorations, bedecked the apartment, busted out all my Christmas movies, bought the new Bela Fleck and the Flecktones Christmas album (which was fantastic, by the way), bought and mailed Christmas cards, maybe a little forcefully at times added a jump to my step, and also decided we should have a Christmas party.  And have one we did.  We called it “Christmas Party Conquers the Martians” with the idea being that the party would culminate in watching the classic Mystery Science Theater episode of “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” (one of my favorite holiday traditions).

Well thanks to all of those things, my forced merriment soon became actual merriment.  Maybe the Christmas season really is what you make of it, rather than what it makes of you.  You know that friend of yours that always seems to be happy no matter what’s going on, and they really are genuinely happy, it’s not an act?  I’ve always wanted to be that person.  And maybe one of the tricks is choosing to do things with friends or engage in traditions (maybe even ones you don’t believe in anymore), choosing to be happy if you will, in the midst of stress, turmoil, angst, or full out depression.
All that to say, the party was a blast.  We had somewhere between 30 to 40 people come out (packing our apartment).

(Dining Room and kitchen.  That’s Alex, Zach’s brother)

(There’s Jake with the santa hat.  Priceless)

(oh and friend Erini brought over Guitar Hero World Tour, which needed to get played, of course)

I was so impressed by the amount of people that came out, and how good of a time was had.  My heart was very warmed.  Though my friends did not go ice skating with me at Millenium Park, as I’d tried to force them all to do (maybe I was pushing the Christmas thing a little too much?), I still did a lot of the things I wanted to do during the holidays.  I often blog about my relationship angst, and though it does still get magnified during this season, being with my friends and my incredible family made such a difference this year.

I type this from my childhood bed, having just filled the stockings.  This year my sister and I played Santa, and though the mystery of the consumerist Christmas traditions may be gone, I still feel a certain sense of wonder and joy.  I may not wake up at 4am anymore like I did when I was a kid, but I’ll still wake up very excited to spend the whole day with my family opening presents, telling stories, eating, and laughing.

So to you all, I wish you much laughter on this Christmas day!  And I leave you with this shot I took last night on my phone of the Chicago river:

(that’s probably not the river you should skate away on)