Gulp and double-gulp. Thanksgiving is upon us. With it, awkward family visits. If we are lucky (lay on the sappy music), any of us truly lucky, we'll realize, even for a moment, thankfulness. Even if it's thankfulness for a chance to complain about awkward family visits.

And so we begin the annual planning of the weeks and days of the coming holiday season, (some of us were unluckily forced into it earlier than expected thanks to mall visits.) Every moment is scheduled and double-booked so that precious "holiday traditions" don't go unfulfilled, culminating in a few perfect (though stressful and carefully orchestrated) moments straight out of Hollywood or magazines.

Not wanting to be considered a hum-bug or Scrooge I have to admit to being a holiday snob. I take great pleasure in wrapping up carefully hand-selected presents, using recycled bows and just-so paper folds. I love hearing holiday music and my heart melts at the Christmas movies that seem to be everywhere. I don't mind traditions, in fact I like them but only for so long as they are relevant to the people participating in them. Once that relevancy has passed, it's time to discard them and make new ones.

Obligatory gift giving is another thing I dislike. It too often results in poorly selected gifts and painful social situations. I don't like receiving crappy gifts with no discernable connection to me nor do I suspect it's fun for the gift-giver, blindly throwing out a hand and grabbing the first $10 item they can find to throw into a gift bag.

Likewise, I dislike the monetary strain gift giving lays low so many families. I personally know a family, with five plus children and the mother, financially strapped year round, spends a thousand dollars on each of her children. EACH! She says she doesn't want them waking up Christmas morning feeling poor. I can't help but feel that she is making them feel poor with that type of thinking, two-fold: She is drastically pulling from her resources which has to effect them throughout the year and two, perhaps more importantly she is teaching them that it is things that make this holiday. It is whether or not they have things that makes them rich and loved.

What I do like about the holidays is the pausing and relishing of the little things we don't any other time. Seriously, what other time of year is hot cider so revered? Or the smell of pine? Or peppermint? Snowfall? Family?

And so we come full circle. We pull out the stops and stock up on the things we feel compelled and justified to show/feel/think we're in the holiday spirit.

Not to get you guys down, no, that's not my intention. My intention was to point out the flaws of this season so that we can better appreciate the things we do have and are doing right. My rant is over.

We bought our first artificial tree tonight. It feels too pragmatic for this holiday snob, maybe that's why I went off on the tangent.

The deductive long term financial benefits ($200 now versus $50+ each year for the next 10 years) and the logical short term benefits (no need to find a truck to transport the tree home, we won't need to water it or clean up pine needles or to dispose of it after we're done) all warring with the insubstantial whimsy (pine smell) that doesn't make a holiday, but helps.