Christmas

I love Christmas!  I love the hustle and bustle, the shopping, deciding on that perfect gift, and the excitement in the air no matter where you are.  I enjoy gift wrapping, decorating the house, putting up the trees (yes, trees, one real and one artificial) and Christmas baking.  However, my favorite part of Christmas is getting together with friends over the holiday season and spending Christmas Day with family.  Celebrating with them has always been something I truly enjoy and it is what makes this season so special to me. 

As children, our family tradition was to gather at our parents’ home for Christmas Day.  After Mom moved into an apartment and could no longer fit our ever-growing family into her small quarters, my home became the gathering place for our Christmas feast.  I love the large, noisy family who comes into our home each year. Our house rings with laughter and the comfort that comes from being with people you love. We enjoy that comfortable and peaceful feeling of being with family who know each other better than anyone else ever could – and still like each other!  My husband’s family gathers at his sister’s home each Christmas Eve and the love and the joy of being together is evident there too.

It seems that each year we gain a new little person into our clan and over the years have welcomed new family members in the form of boyfriends and girlfriends, who later become husbands and wives.  Of course, there have been years in which a loved one is no longer with us and his or her presence is missed.  Such is the circle of life that we welcome new life in our circle and we say goodbye to those who life’s work is completed. 

I always marvel at the inter-generational exchanges and how age doesn't matter at a family gathering. We all have something in common: each other.  It is always amazing to see young people deep in discussion with much older relatives, and older relatives taking interest in the lives and gossip of younger people. Young and old, we are all related and we learn from each other.  I am often struck by how diverse we are. We are all so alike and yet so different from each other. We bask in unconditional love and know that each of us is an important part of our family.  That is the magic of family, and it becomes even more magical at Christmas.

Over the years, our group as grown as we married and had children, and now those children are married with babies of their own.  I believe the best gift we can give our children is the security of family.  I hope my children have benefited from being a part of a close extended family and that they and their cousins will carry on the tradition of the big family gatherings.

To each and every one of you, best wishes for a very Merry Christmas.  May your Christmas celebration be perfect and leave with wonderful memories to cherish through-out the year.

Enjoying a safe and happy holiday season . . .  it's a good thing!