spiked

I have been of two minds about the current holiday season. 

Mind #1:  Pretty stressed.  Flights to the deep, deep South?  Expensive.  My relationship with my brother?  Complicated.  Plus, I feel like every year, I have at least one epic Christmas Fail.  Last year, there were two; one involved gift giving to the in-laws, and the other was that I somehow did not send a Christmas card to my uncle, who is one of like three people who would actually give a shit about getting one.
These are the things that make my stomach hurt in the middle of the night.

On the other hand, there is

Mind #2.  Which can't help but be delighted by how delighted Soren is about Christmas.  For example, we got our tree almost a week ago, and he still hasn't gotten over the fact that there is a TREE inside our house.  Also?  It has lights on it!  He points them out to me every morning.  "Light!  Light! Light!"

On the subject of the main in the red suit, he was less enthusiastic.  I believe his exact words when placed on that lap, screaming as if in agony, were "MOMMY!  MOMMY!  PLEEEEEEEASE!!"

So, I am trying to be the normal human and let Mind #2 be the winner.  It's mostly working, aided by spiked egg nog and a little bit of Vince Gauraldi.