(my apologies; I watched Team America: World Police last week)

This year, Ed and I have to spend Christmas ALONE.

When we lived in Alberta, we spent every holiday with his parents and it was awesome. After moving to Vancouver, it was time to start some traditions of our own – we had one holiday with my parents, and the next two were spent in the delightful company of our Annual Christmas Wyatt. This year, however, is looking a little lonely.

I like having people around. To me, Christmas with just the two of us won’t be quite the same. After all, I am a hermit who never goes outside and it’s *always* just the two of us – more people means more fun, as previously demonstrated by my attempts to get people to come on along on our honeymoon (successful) and 5th anniversary (unsuccessful). Now that our Annual Christmas Wyatt is all grown up with a girlfriend who comes with a family of her own to visit, we won’t have enough people for a truly engaging game of Monopoly or 3-man Slapjack. All our close Vancouver friends are going away for the holidays, Ed’s parents can’t come out because of their dog, and my mom is being stubborn. That just leaves us, and the cats. BOO!

I’ve been trying for some time to get my mom to come out for Christmas, but she won’t bite. She came out once, two years ago, and hated our place in East Van. It’s okay – so did we – but now I really want her to come visit again and see the place in North Van and also not be all alone or stuck waiting on FROOOOOOOONK all day. She’s been sick with bronchitis, and is using that as her excuse not to come. I keep telling her all she has to do is get on the damn bus, and it will deliver her to the train station in Vancouver at which point she will be picked up and waited on hand and foot by us, but nooooo.

I don’t know why I need someone else to be around for it to be a special day; I just do. Ed thinks it’s just dandy that we’ll be all alone, but I can’t help feeling a little lonely about it and therefore pouty. It’s a good look for me, I think.

To combat the perceived loneliness I’m going to feel on Christmas day, I’ve been searching for volunteering type things to do but I can’t find any. What gives? I’ve found dozens of posts of people wanting to volunteer, but nothing saying “hey, we could use some help”. If the internet can’t help me, I’ll have to check the newspaper or something. It’s a little selfish, wanting to volunteer just so I can stop feeling sorry for myself, but I am a flawed, flawed being.