The Dregs Of Figgy Pudding

Most of us don’t really look forward to Christmas. I blame expectations.

When we’re young, we expect a surfeit of good things. Fortunately, when we’re young, it’s easy to be surfeited. For me, all it took was a new Oz book (as in Wizard Of, not the acclaimed HBO show) or whatever toy the (black and white) TV told me I wanted.

Fast-forward to adulthood. TVs are big, flat, and high def (but still bossy.) Surfeit isn’t an option anymore.

Maybe that’s because now we’re more preoccupied with giving than receiving. This is both logical and good. First, it’s nice to think of others before ourselves. You know, golden rule and whatnot.

Second, it’s not easy to come up with stuff we can wrap in festive paper and give to our friends and loved ones to make them happy.

Truth be told, Auntie isn’t a particularly good gift giver. Sure, if I know you collect something, I’ll try to find you a weird one. But nobody collects stuff anymore. It’s all digital now.

I didn’t even bake cookies this year. That said, I’m running Cookie Clicker in the background as I type this.

Ahem. Sorry, tangent. I was trying to talk about the spirit of Christmas.

See, I had an unexpectedly transcendent Christmas.

Unexpected because as I said, grown-ups don’t really expect much. Transcendent because I got the most wonderful gift from people I didn’t think would bother.

I got validation. In fact, I was happily surfeited with validation.

It started last week, when Morgan (@RudeMorgue, follow him on Twitter for his acerbic wit) gave me something that showed not only thought, but care. If you come over, you can see it. He wasn’t supposed to give me anything. I didn’t give him anything.

(He will have many cookies soon-ish.)

For those of us without a large family base, it’s easy to feel overlooked or alienated at this time of year. This gets worse when the ties to old friends have stretched or broken.

So special thanks to my new and new-ish friends, Alex and Fracture and Fraser and Gill and Janiam and Mia and Schwartzie (in alphabetical order) for taking the time to make this cranky old Auntie Grinch have a holly jolly holiday.

Now all I want is to get enough anti-matter condensers to dunk my cookie. Don’t ask, and whatever you do, do NOT start clicking.

P.S. In between when I wrote that and when I posted this, I saw my friend Max Maven and got the ultimate validation (especially considering the source.) He said, “There’s nothing generic about you, kiddo.” Ok, it was in conext, but dammit, I'm keeping it.

And when I got back from seeing him, I had enough cookies for another anti-matter condenser! Wheee!