My daughter Faith and I have discovered a new favorite seasonal pastime. It’s ridiculously girly, involves loads of tissue and about two hours of cooing and sobbing between the two of us. What’s our new find? I’m embarrassed to admit (cough, cough…ahem…) but we have become obsessed with the Hallmark Channel.
In an effort to save dollars, my ever frugal husband negotiated a smoking deal with Direct TV. What remains is nothing but the most basic of channels; excluding the NFL channel he somehow worked into the deal.
(I know …right? I lose my favorite shows and he gains about another 25 games a week)
Who knew after we lost Bravo, the Style Channel, “E” and anything of interest to a chick that we would find the secret jewel of Hallmark? I can only assume in the absence of all decent amusement, sappy love stories involving Santa and Elves start to look good.
A Bride for Christmas…Moonlight and Mistletoe…Naughty or Nice…
Only Hallmark could come up with low-budget movies this good. I get to see all my favorite actors stage a comeback while being emotionally hijacked in the process.
But the best part of wasting my time on mindless entertainment is doing this with my daughter. I sit by her side; play with her long hair and cuddle close. We share a fleece blanket, toast our toes by the fire and sip hot tea while munching on animal crackers.
There are rules: We don’t argue. We watch the whole movie. We fast-forward through commercials and we simply hang out and do nothing–together.
It’s a much-needed reprieve from the daily grind of Faith pushing the envelope to grow up fast, fast and faster and me standing by with a blinking yellow “slow down” sign.
Push-Pull…it’s our daily battle of growing up and letting go.
But Hallmark, oh glorious and cheesy Hallmark allows us to push pause and simply enjoy each other.
Do you have a special holiday pastime?
