Memoir Monday- All that Christmas Stuff

               People always say, “Christmas is in the air.” Maybe it’s me or something, but the air is just like it always is. The air feels like it feels when it’s March, or September; or any day. Despite what I just said, I don’t feel like its Christmas time, the second Mrs. Meadows said memoir, I knew I was going to write about me being anti-Christmas. I know I always say this, and if you’ve read more than one of my memoirs, you’ll realize how I always say moving changed my life. It sounds cheesy, cliché, and all that, but I kind of feel it’s true.

                I remember how we used to spend Christmas when we lived in Colombia. We would go to my aunt’s house, sit around the Christmas tree and have dinner. If you were young, young as in six or seven-years-old, you’d get a bunch of presents. If you were old, old as in 12 or 13, you’d get one or two presents. Christmas for my friends is decorating the Christmas tree; it’s writing a letter to Santa Claus, it’s waiting to see what the stockings have on Christmas morning. They all ask for Ipads and computers while I just get gift cards from Zara and ajiaco.

                I also remember my Christmas spent in Costa Rica. We had just arrived and everything was still perfectly placed in boxes, stacked all over the living room. There was a Christmas tree system in San Jose; where you rented a real pine tree, used it, and then a big red truck would pick it up. We decorated the tree, and sat around it, opening only a couple of presents. Only four people to celebrate. No Caroling, no turkey and no egg nog, nothing festive.

                I’m only 14 years old, which means that I have spent more than half of my life in other countries that in my actual homeland. To me, Christmas is not an Ipad, or a pair of earrings. Christmas for me, is a single gift card, a plate with ajiaco, four people gathering around a rented pine tree.

                So long story short, when people say Christmas is in the air? I don’t feel it. When they ask me what I got for Christmas, my answer will probably be a gift card or soup. Even if Santa Claus is at every corner, even if every old guy is wearing the tackiest Christmas sweater I’ve ever seen, I don’t feel the, what do you call it? Christmas spirit? Yeah, I don’t feel the Christmas Spirit.