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" I&amp;#039;m not much of a holiday girl. But most people who know me would disagree with this statement because my actions say something very different. After all, I send out beautiful holiday cards. I have a Victorian motif for my tree, for which I am very proud of. I bake dozens of cookies. I&amp;#039;m a fairly generous gift giver \u2014 remembering to thank everyone who helps or brightens my life \u2014 whether it&amp;#039;s the guy who collects my trash, my neighbors, or my husband. I wear a lot of red (well really, I wear red because I think I look sexy and bold in it, but the holidays give me a good excuse to wear it more often!). But truth be told, I&amp;#039;m faking it. I actually dislike the holidays and breathe a sigh of relief when they finally pass. Growing up, the holidays always resulted in some type of family fight. And even as an adult, the holidays aren&amp;#039;t really happy or spiritual, but rather a race for the perfect present and making sure we end up at everyone&amp;#039;s house on time, trying to please everyone but ourselves.  Now that I&amp;#039;m married, Dan and I have been struggling to figure out how to break away from this obligatory feeling of having to spend the holidays with our family and make our own traditions. As hard as we try, it&amp;#039;s really difficult to stand up to our parents, put our foot down, and reclaim Christmas for ourselves. But this year, Dan and I are well on our way. We&amp;#039;re starting to carve out our own way with baby steps. Dan, god bless him, has declined invitation to see his family on Christmas since we will see them only a short 2 weeks later when his sister&amp;#039;s birthday is celebrated in January. We will, instead, for the first time, be celebrating Christmas in our home \u2014 our new house. While my family will be coming over on Christmas Day, we did attempt to try to invite some friends, too, hoping that somehow our friends would act as equalizers, ensuring good behavior from my parents and adding fun and cheer to our day. Sadly, all our pals declined our invite because they, too, feel obliged to spend the holidays with their family \u2014 even though they complain about them and apparently dislike them\u2014because they seemingly don&amp;#039;t have the courage to break free, either. My favorite plan for this Xmas is our sexy Christmas Eve, when Dan and I will enjoy a romantic dinner out by ourselves, followed by a brief pop-in to a midnight mass and maybe a ride around neighborhood to look at the lights on people&amp;#039;s houses. If all goes well, maybe we&amp;#039;ll have a little X-MAS Rated Sex afterwards in front of our fireplace (I better run out and buy a bear skin rug ASAP!) That sounds like a Christmas I can get into\u2014and one that is truly worth celebrating. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/love-sex/sex/a2505/our-christmas-eve/>