Christmas

We all take this time of year to reflect. Reflect on what we have done, could have done, should have done. What we will do differently in the New Year to achieve different results – to become the person we always wanted to be and make promises to be better in every way in the New Year. This Year will be the best year of our lives.

I’ve stopped doing that – quite some time ago. I’ve learned that making New Year’s resolutions are filled with drunken hopes of ideals that, for the most part, never happen. Filled with wishes that never come true. Filled with high expectations that I can never live up to.

Now, I simply thank God. Thank Him for my blessings. And I have very many. I thank Him for my husband of thirty-something years who still manages to surprise and delight me in the simplest of ways, my children who continue to burst my heart with pride, my daughters-in-law who share my passion for life, and now my grandson, who has opened my heart to a different kind of love and adoration that I never knew existed.

I thank Him for my siblings who always have my back, no matter what. I thank him for my friends who always show up, without expectations. I thank Him for my health, my passion to carry on, my love of life.

And with this gratitude I embrace the New Year knowing that I can and will survive, endure, enjoy whatever life has to offer.

May your New Year be filled with an abundance of blessings.

I know many many people feel the same way. And we know why. The happiness, the caring, the sharing, the giving and receiving – togetherness of family and friends. It’s a crazy busy time when we try to pull everything together in one fell swoop. We want everything in its rightful place – the perfect setting, the perfect food, the perfect gift for that perfect person. We give so much of ourselves in the preparation and in the execution. Nothing is too much to do. We revel in the company of family and friends we have not seen for a while and even those we see every day. We miss those who are not there to share the moment with us and we call friends we haven’t spoken to for the entire year.

What is it about Christmas that brings everyone together like this regardless of their religious belief. This overflowing of love has no boundaries. And where does it all go immediately after Christmas Day has passed. Rather than bemoan this, maybe we should just be grateful that at least once a year, we make the effort. The effort to be kind, the effort to share, to remember, to empathize, to think of others. Or maybe we should, with each passing year, try to extend the Christmas joy as they call it, to just one more week, one more month.

This Christmas I tried to document through pictures, the moments I look forward to the most, hoping that when I need a little pick me up, I can look back, remember, and with a smile on my face continue to revel and hopefully share the Christmas spirit.

My wish for you is God’s continued blessings in all you do.