Happy Holidays to Me?

So I realized recently that the older we get the more the Holidays become about everyone around us and the less they become about us. I'm fairly young, in my early 20's and am already realizing that I will from now on be in such a situation as to give up what I want for the Holidays in order to make sure that everyone around me is happy on theirs. I wish I could do it and still get things my way at least a little bit but there is never enough resources. Either money is tight, time is short or the universe decides against it.

This seems to sound whiney so far and honestly it probably is. I am more than happy to sacrifice most things so that all the other people in mine and my boyfriends lives get a special Holiday Season. However, I do wish that I could feel at least a little bit special. Like someone would go out of their way to try and make mine special. It doesn't normally happen though. Hard as some people might want to it just never seems to happen.

A few days ago I was talking to several older women, all mothers and wives. They were talking about the "family gift". That one thing the whole family agrees they can share and how that was usually a gift fo the husbands and kids, how they never really got much out of it. On top of that it also seemed like they were the ones to run around most to put everything together, and then were the most exhausted and the least noticed on the Holiday itself. Maybe I'm just starting to figure out how my mother must have felt all those years, hard as I tried on the Holidays, because to be honest Santa Clause just took a great deal of attention!

I'm not a mother yet. I am not a wife yet. I have not felt the true exhaustion of the preparations. I am simply starting to understand. So to all the mothers that put in all that work THANK YOU! To all those parents and spouses who give up their Holiday cheer to make everyone else happy THANK YOU! To everyone who knows what it's like to feel a little bit left out when everyone else is celebrating on the day you've prepared THANK YOU! You make the Holidays worth having, and you make the smiles possible and you deserve the biggest and best THANKS!

Happy Holidays and may everyone get to feel special!