Song and Dance and Candy
Holidays give us the chance to step outside our normal lives. Our daily routine is gone, replaced by a balancing act of relatives, chaos, food, messes, and sometimes a few friends showing up in the mix. In an offhand way, this gathering of personalities is like one big Easter basket of flavors and textures, all crammed into one place.
You’ve got your weird relatives, much like those chocolate covered nuts and chewy raisin-like things you can’t identify, not to mention dotty candies and too-big jelly beans. Some are interesting and some just leave your head spinning. I remember as a kid getting Easter chocolate from a distant relative that smelled fruity and tasted like wax. The chocolate, not the relative.
My sister’s trick when we were kids was to push her thumb through the bottom of chocolate candies to find out what the center had inside. Then she’d put them back if she didn’t like what she found. But she left the top intact, so the next person had no idea it was smooshed until they picked it up. Surprise!
But it’s not all smooshed candy and weirdness. There’s also the holiday tap dance we all do with the lack of sleep, stress, endless housecleaning, cooking, dishes, and walking on eggshells when so-and-so is in the room. We give our all with every performance.
Prominent in your holiday basket, though, if you’re lucky, will be your family, friends, long-standing traditions, and maybe even that special food dish made just for you because it’s your favorite. In that case, you’ve got, front and center, Cadbury crème eggs and anything with coconut (that’s my basket, alright) and some kind of chocolate/peanut butter thing because that combo has always been there for you as back as you can remember. (And whether you like the cups, eggs, or minis, your choice comes down to the chocolate-to-peanut-butter ratio because we all know the ratio is everything.)
Yes, friends, the holidays hit us with it all. In a strange twist of fate, they even hit us with a dose of reality: Sudden alone time and the hope that it won’t always be this bad. Or, conversely, the stark knowledge that won’t always be this good.
The silver lining is that we’ve been doing this song and dance for years and we’re pretty good at it. Speaking of the song and dance, years ago I saw Mamma Mia! performed in Washington, D.C. when it first came to town (yes, I’m that many years old). Anyway, my friends and I were sitting pretty close to the stage (tickets were selling so fast we took what we could get) and after the first number, when the stage lights went out, I saw very clearly one of the main actors give a big sigh of relief before stepping off stage. She took a huge breath and let it out, and her face clearly showed, “Ok. That’s done. On with the next.” She even gave a tiny little head bob as if to punctuate the “On with the next” part. I wasn’t supposed to see it, and had we not been sitting so darn close I never would have. She pops into my thoughts every so often and every time I feel a kinship. She was at the top of her game, and at just the right moment, I got a glimpse at her human side. There are times when I think that moment summed up my whole life. The show was magnificent, by the way.
And just like that performer, we are at the top of our game. Think of it: We can balance and juggle and roll with anything that the holidays throw at us. We’re pros at this.
Simultaneously, we’re human, too. I think the trick is to take a look around, on holidays and every day, and keep hold of the good stuff…while quietly unloading the crud you don’t like into your sister’s basket.
