Hey, c'mon, it's Christmas, guys!

It's officially nine days to go before Christmas. It should start to get merrier. I just missed the first Christmas party lined up this year and I really wanted to attend it. Why the heck does it all have to get bad?!

In my own little tribe in my little circle, these are the top 5 dramas that upstage the joys of Christmas:

1. City traffic. Horrific. It happens like clockwork. December, check. Christmas bonuses distributed, check. Christmas shopping, check. Traffic jams, check, check, check. More than once I swore to at least try to skip family tradition and take Christmas eve celebration somewhere quiet out of town.
   
2. School programs. With school programs come costume preparations, rehearsals changing regular schedules, jitters, tempers flying right before the day comes. There is also the occasional failure to charge the camera batteries, forgetting of some costume detail, and the vehicle being trapped in traffic somewhere and at least one parent missing the much-awaited for number.
3. A long lineup of events and holiday parties. There are family, school, organization reunions, birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas parties left and right. Some products and publications have to stage launches and conferences at this merry month of all months, too. With these get-togethers, there are the concerns about wardrobe, potluck, presents, schedules.
4. The day-afters. Hangovers, migraines, exhaustion, and whatever scandal of the moment going around. Of course, nowadays, there is FaceBook to chronicle and publish the entire gamut of what happened and didn't happen, who looked like what, and who wore what, and who didn't show up.
5. The hustle and bustle of shopping! Arghhhh! This is the only time I come close to losing the thrill of shopping. Crowds, long queues, mix-ups, grouchy sales people, and the craziness of it all -- grabbing whatever at the last minute.

At the height of all these -- that would be on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and New Year's Eve and New Year's Day -- tempers would be peaking and tolerance and kindness, peace and joy would seem unattainable throughout the havoc of frenzied and fried people who gather to celebrate.

I am seeing a build-up of this pattern, but I'm hoping, as in many Christmases, someone or something comes to save the day and give us all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year after all.