I believe I should have expected that children would make the holiday season easily different.
When I was younger I didn’t have to worry easily much about Christmas or New Year’s because I was just trying to entertain myself & celebrate with some friends.
The two of us would buy a bunch of drinks, spend a few evenings in the cold are together, & call it a successful holiday season. I never had to worry about buying presents or maintaining the facade of this whole Santa character. Now, I am an adult with children & I have a lot more to worry about as the air temperature starts to dip each year. Apparently, the heating, cooling, & air quality control plan is one of the largest concerns that I need to address. I never entirely thought that our heating plan would mean anything to our children. When I was a child the temperature control was off-limits & I entirely didn’t ever consider how the home stayed warm. However, both of us never had a real wood burning fireplace in our house. Now, as an adult both of us have a giant brick fireplace in the kitchen that both of us absolutely savor to use while in the holiday season. Problem being, evidently Santa Claus also prefers to use the fireplace, and my child has been obsessed with our use of the alternative heating component for the past several months now, but she is easily distraught that using the fireplace will deter Santa Claus from coming down the chimney. I have had to make a large show out of calling a local fireplace maintenance corporation to make sure that 2 there is nothing blocking the chimney. I have also promised that both of us will not light a fire on Christmas Eve. So much for the only thing I still loved about the holidays.