I realize Christmas is old news, but I need to express some pieces of my adverture to a social life that occured over the holiday break. Yeah, Christmas is full of happiness, cheer and family, but you’ve got to admit… It’s probably the most awkward time of the year. I don’t even try to force myself into a good mood with cold winds and slushy snow blowing around, no matter how decorated everything is withed and green. So you could say I’m a bit of a Scrooge during the holidays, and the people around me don’t make it much better.

So imagine this. Cramming 12 people nto grandma’s house on a snowy Christmas day. Sounds magical right?   As one kid sits bragging about the cool new shoes they got from Santa to their other relatives, their fathers discuss how the new hot tub they purchased is clearly better than the others. Sitting around the dinner table, a mother sends a glance at her husband, only getting his attention so that she can mock her sister-in-law, who is chewing more obnoxious than a cow chewing his cud. With a pleasant smile on each of our faces, we open gifts thinking “where’d he get this… The Dollar Store?” Yet we still managed to send a fake “I love this” and “thank you” across the room. Every action and every word is just awkward and it makes me want to crawl into a shell. I feel like we should all be sitting around a warm fire singing “deck the halls,” instead everyone awkwardly sits around staring at each other. Maybe by next Christmas I will be social enough to inspire a nice Christmas day filled with caroling and cheer, but until then I still prefer days spent on my own doing my own thing. It’s a much easier route.