Kidnap Mr. Sandy Claws?

Once again, hauled in on the backs of zombies, the holidays are upon us. Fueled by dreams of familial bliss we charge through the cold months at the end of the year using the end of each month as a way station of celebration. Often the bliss is over estimated, the libation is over indulged, the bank account overdrawn and we are left facing the reality of a cold and hungover January with only the distant sight of the lover's holiday to redeem ourselves.

Hi, I'm Jason and I'm a scrooge. (Hi Jason!) I am was the guy who could happily go through the rest of life without another Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas, and, while you're at it, haul the rest of those holidays out. That's right, I'm talkin' to you Easter Bunny and your pal Cupid there.

That was until I had a kid. Kids make the holidays bearable. They remind me of when it all went right. Kids don't see the ever expanding commercialism that puts Halloween candy on the shelves on August 1st and replaces it on November 1st with armies of Santas. They see a chance to dress up with their friends, to see family that may not be around all the time, to believe in magic and to be part of something special. You would have to have a heart three sizes too small to deny them that, and I don't. Once I started trying I found that there was still joy to be found in the holidays. At first it was the simple joy of knowing that K and R were into it but the more entrenched I was in the preparation the more I found that I was enjoying the holidays simply for the sake of it and now I am even looking forward to them.

So now I accept that the stores will pray on our yearly needs and avoid the people who might sour my new outlook on this season. I will walk through the dark and cold with a superhero and a princess. I will listen to sickly sweet music while hauling not 1 or 2 or 3 but 4 large boxes of decorations up from the basement. I will lie and stay up until the wee hours of the morning building complex devices in an attempt to keep the magic from dieing too soon ( and it is starting to fade ).

So until Cupid hauls off the empty husk of holiday's corpse, the holidays are here and we will enjoy them. Or else.

"And one more thing... leave that no-account Oogie-Boogie out of this!"