ESSAY | PROMPTLY WRITTEN
Holiday Exhaustion
Who could enjoy the season with all these activities?
Preparations for the holidays always began after Halloween in my family. My siblings and I were tasked with cleaning duties — scrubbing the walls, shelves, vacuuming and shampooing the carpets, and cleaning our mother’s copious amount of bric-a-brac that dotted the entire house. This cleaning and packing away the normal decorations usually took several days and then we’d start decorating for Thanksgiving. Out would come all the fall decor and the large wicker turkey that was the centerpiece in the living room.
For us kids, it seemed like Thanksgiving came and went way too quickly. We never had traditional dinners. Mom would make a large pot of beef stew, homemade rolls, a few pies, and lemon pound cake for my dad. He and my brother would trot off hunting early on Thanksgiving morning and sometimes wouldn’t return until after sundown. So Thanksgiving was never anything too special.
The very next day, we packed away the fall decor, and out came all of the Christmas decorations. Tons of them! Christmas was mom’s favorite holiday. The entire house became a winter wonderland. White puffy stuffing decorated all the mantels and tables in the house, with the exception of the kitchen table. Then came all the…
