My Annual Christmas Wish

This Christmas mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Write a love letter. Share some treasure. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Keep a promise. Find the time. Forgive an enemy. Listen. Apologize if you were wrong. Think first of someone else. Be kind and gentle. Laugh a little. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love. Speak it again. Speak it still once again.

Merry! Merry!

It's just a few days before Christmas and I can't wait for it to come and go. I'm not usually such a Scrooge, it's just that this has been a difficult holiday season. I do love that my tree is up and all my Christmas's past are before me. Ornaments that take me back to the second grade, high school, old boyfriends, Dave and I dating and marrying, and Mason's birth. All of this makes me smile so much more than gifts. I do love Christmas, but I'm thinking next year may be more festive.
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A Week Before Christmas

Have you managed to keep the stress of Christmas at bay? I have, well, with one exception. I have a young man in my life that I have yet to reach out to. His birthday was in October and now I'm a week away from Christmas and he still doesn't know I exist. I digress, what I'm really looking for is I want to know if you have been able to unplug the Christmas machine? The part of this time of year that has you pulling your hair out and wishing you had more than just a week to finish all those things you think you need to do.

I haven't let all the commercial nonsense get to me. I'm mailing certain gifts after Christmas because I don't want to fight the crowds at the post office. The way I see it, a gift will be welcome no matter what day it arrives and might even be more appreciated if it's not one of many in the overwhelm of that one day. I hope you can take some time and not be taken over by perceptions that you have to meet a certain deadline and give something to everyone. As it goes with love and giving, the season is all year long and when it's truly from your heart, it will be appreciated. Even if it arrives on December 28th!

It's My Birthday! Well, Almost.

Tomorrow is my birthday and it's safe to say that as I turn 43, I've changed. For me to simply say I've grown up or matured would be expected. It's true that I've certainly matured, but there have been other noticeable changes. I'm so much more grateful for the little miracles in my life, and I've also become acutely aware of how fragile love and life are. I have more compassion and understanding than I can remember feeling in my life and even specific examples of times I was less than humble or loving toward others. Those fleeting thoughts make me feel ashamed, even just for a moment, I'm sorry I behaved badly.

Many of you are probably thinking, all this sounds like growing up. Yes, it is growing up, but I feel in the core of who I am that it's more than simply living to be 43, I feel like it's much more of an evolution, a place in my being that is deserving of great respect yet not expecting it. I feel a sense of enlightenment that makes me want to be more careful when I choose my words and pause longer when someone is hurting. Call it what you will, I've changed. It's change for the good of all and that's a good thing!

Cookies

All of you know by now that I love to make Christmas cookies. I'm a retired cake decorator and to keep me creatively stimulated, I decorate beautiful gingerbread cookies during the holidays. I can remember my granny and my mom making dozens of different kinds of cookies, and though I love the little spritz cookies, nothing enchants me like a beautifully decorated cut-out cookie!

Do you have cookie traditions in your family? Most people I know bake for the holidays and it's clearly why we all resolve to lose some weight come January 1st. If not all the weight we vow to lose each day, just the weight we gained from all the Christmas cookies!

Christmas Cards

Some people are not sending Christmas cards because of the cost and the time it takes to prepare and mail them. I am. I love getting cards in the mail, especially when it seems like the only other mail we get is bills! Since I love getting Christmas cards, I can only assume that you do, too. Some of the cards I get come from friends that this is the only time of year we connect, but I'm so glad we do! We don't have to talk frequently to still care about each other, and just because we only send a card with a note once a year doesn't mean we don't think about each other more often. This is just one more way I think Christmas is more personal.

Ornaments

This year decorating our tree was really special because this is the first year Mason recognized his ornaments as his special treasures. He picked each one up, looked at it and shared with me, "I remember this one! I got this when I was really little." Dave and I shared with him some of ours from when we were little, some we made as teenagers, and the ones we've acquired over the years as a couple. This to me is what Christmas is really about, "rememberies" as Mason calls them. I hope you make lots of rememberies this year, I know we will.

Simplify Getting a Tree

In years past, Dave and I have picked a day we will go get our tree, made the 30+ minute drive to a tree farm, spent hours hiking and searching for the perfect, very tall tree. All the while, Mason may or may not be enjoying himself as every tree is perfect to him. By the time we got home, half the day was gone and we were not always in the cheeriest of spirits to get the tree trunk cut, the tree in the stand, making sure it was strait, stringing lights, and finally ornaments. Getting the tree and putting it up was easily an all-day event and sometimes moved into day two, not to mention the $100 price tag that comes with most trees that you choose and cut.

Last year we did all of the above except after hours of searching at several locations, we did not come home with a tree at all! We ended up at SaveMart (a local grocery store) where we purchased a tree for $39.99 after just minutes of looking. This is exactly what we did this year, and Dave and I picked it up without Mason. Mason is excited about decorating the tree, not all the stuff that comes with bringing it home. The tree we bought last year as with the one in the living room right now is gorgeous! After all, once you get your tree home and love it with your history in pretty ornaments, how can it be anything but beautiful?

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