winding down

This semester, like past semesters, is poised to end with a fade rather than a bang. Two of my classes ended Friday; one ends tomorrow - so this weekend was a lot less focused on class prep than usual. Then, I administer exams and grade them on alternate days for the next week, but there will be plenty of down-time to make cookies with Mom (one of our fun holiday traditions) and decorate the tree and the house a little, and do the little bit of shopping we need to. The adults in my family don't exchange gifts anymore, and even buying for the kids has turned into a gift-card thing, which is pathetic, but less pathetic than being the aunt and uncle who give the weird/useless/laughable gifts.

After Xmas, we are going to buckle down and work like dogs, I on my book, and B on his paper.

Huh. I wonder if we really will?

Christmas usually puts me in a mood. We have scaled back immensely from the whirlwind we used to undertake, which is good. It was to stressful and tiring. But now there is more time to contemplate, and so I can see that all the "joy of the season" is mostly manufactured by the advertising agencies to get us to buy more: so depressing to be manipulated this way. There is no critical examination of the proposition that everyone "should" be get-get-getting - and so beyond the depressing weight of what to get for all the people who already have what they want is the guilt of not donating ENOUGH so that all the people who can't get what they want can maybe get just a little something. Toys for Tots, Globe Santa, etc.

To say nothing of the curmudgeonly post I could write about how everyone is so damn grumpy at this time of year. Especially drivers on the commute - what's up with that??