And it’s a good thing if you plan ahead
The first time I spent a Christmas alone was a year or two after I moved to Florida with my boyfriend. He wanted to go back to our hometown of St. Louis to be with his family, but I didn’t want to make the trip. I can’t remember if it was because of my job, because I didn’t like traveling over the holidays, didn’t want to deal with family drama, or was stressed and wanted peace and quiet. Whatever reason, I was all by my lonesome on December 25th and was as miserable as the Grinch.
This was before the days of the social media boom, so not only was I physically alone, I also didn’t have any of my St. Louis peeps to Zoom with or hang out with on Facebook or have any other easy way to network. Even if I had, friends were all likely busy with their families and I could only spend so much time with my small family on the phone. I hadn’t made any friends in the area yet so no one invited me to their house for a big dinner or for cheery drinks on the lanai (which is a fancy name for a Florida porch and yes, it’s usually warm enough at Christmas to hang out there for drinks), or to celebrate with them in any way. I was totally disconnected.
What the hell was I thinking?
I had no activities planned. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I’m usually a Planning Princess and I look at any…
