In The Mood for Christmas?

I'm having a hard time getting into any kind of holiday mood this year (well, actually for the past few years). With no little kids at home to take to visit Santa and buy toys for, and no tree up (see previous posts as to why no tree), and no cookies to bake because we're too fat already, and no lights on the outside of our house (because we're too lazy to put them up), Christmas just isn't that exciting any more.

Keith and I were discussing that since we spend Christmas Day alone, we really should try to come up with some sort of holiday tradition for the two of us. But what? We don't buy each other gifts that can be unwrapped, so no ripping into presents from under the tree, since there are no presents and no tree. If we did do gifts that would only take about 3 minutes out of the day anyway, since there's only the two of us. A big holiday breakfast? Yeah, that would be great, but wait a minute, am I supposed to COOK that big holiday breakfast? The only restaurant open on Christmas is Denny's, so we could go over there for our big holiday breakfast, right? Um, maybe not, Denny's isn't known for their five star cuisine, that's for sure.

We talked about having a holiday dinner for the two of us, but what should we make? Turkey? Ham? One of those premade dinners from Vons with the turkey and dressing and a sad looking pumpkin pie all frozen in a big box? Keith suggested putting a roast in our new crock pot and letting that cook all day, so today I got a roast and that's what we'll have for dinner. Later in the week I'll go back to the store and find some decadent dessert to have, too.

But what else to do all day? Rent some movies? Drive around town and look at all the stores that are closed for the holiday and marvel at the empty parking lots? Drive up to the mountains and look at the snow? Don't know.

We usually drive down to Castaic on the Eve, but may not make it down there this year after checking the weather forecast. It's supposed to be rainy next week, which means snowy on the mountains, so we'll have to wait until the last minute and check the road conditions before going anywhere. Every year on the news they show stranded travelers on both sides of the mountains sitting in their cars wondering where they are going to spend the night since the roads are closed and there's no way in or out of the valley. Last week every road out of the central valley was closed except for the road to Morro Bay, so if you wanted to get to LA, you had to spend 7 hours on the road instead of the usual 2 hours. I just know I don't want to be on the news so if there's a chance of snow up there on the interstate, we're not going!

So, here's to another quiet Christmas with just the two of us eating our breakfast at Denny's and our pot roast for dinner, with a whole day of forced relaxation in between.