Christmas Joys

For the first time in a long time, Christmas was fantastic. Don't get me wrong; Christmases of the past were good too but this was different.

It started Christmas Eve at my uncle's house. They were doing a white elephant gift exchange. For those who don't know what that is, and I discovered there were several of my friends that didn't, everyone brings a wrapped or bagged gift. Usually it's something that they were gifted and have no use for or a budget is set, such as nothing over $10. Everyone drew a number and whoever drew #1 started the exchange by picking a gift. You open it, everyone sees what it is and #2 goes. THEY have the choice of stealing what you have or picking a new gift. Gifts (for us) can only be stolen twice before they're "dead". I was number one and had mine for all of one minute because it was promptly stolen by #2. So I picked again and the game continued with lots of stealing and laughing and good natured teasing. Everyone cracked up when my grandmother stole the large LED flashlight a second time, there by rendering it un-stealable, for my grandpa. The joke of the night was the turtle. My mother loves turtles and last year one was put in the gift pot. She stole it from someone and her big brother stole it from her, rendering it dead. She was not happy...LOL. When she left that night, it was in the front seat of her car. Another turtle made an appearance along with a Kermit this year. My daughter stole it, intending to give her grandma the turtle and her mom (ME!) the Kermit. Fate intervened...her grandma stole it from her to laughter and boos. My uncle called house rules (it was his house) and tried to steal it back but my mom is ferocious and the turtle stayed in her possession. She gave up Kermit though. The nice thing about being number one is that, since you didn't have the chance to steal anything, you get to go last and, having seen all the gifts at that point, get to decide if you keep what you landed with or steal. I stole...lol. A mason jar of Hershey Kisses with an iTunes gift card. Sorry, Cuz for the dancing Santa.

Christmas day had me a teensy bit worried because the tree was sparse for my daughter this year. As in, there was one gift being guarded by two beanie bears and a few things in her stocking. You teach them it's not about the gifts but wonder if they take it to heart. She did and was thrilled with what I got her. Even when other kids talked about what they got, I never saw a disappointed look. We moved on to my dads where she got her yearly favorite book (The Guinness Book of World Records). She enjoyed explaining to Grandpa how the dragon game worked and then it was time to head for my moms. We were having Christmas dinner and my brother brought his girls over later in the evening after doing more of his family stuff. What. A. Blast. It's been years since I've seen my brother laugh and smile like he did this year. I was snapping pictures like crazy and I kept a lot of them on my phone so I can look at them and smile. I have a bunch of pictures of our girls laughing and smiling as well as my mom and stepdad. A good gag from my mom involving drills and bits had us eyeing each other warily for a while...lol.

The day after involved some clearance shopping and gift card spending, followed by bar food. I love me some bar food. Fingers and fries and ranch, baby...lol. So now it's days later and I'm still thinking back and remembering the laughter, for it was plentiful. And I think, gosh I'm blessed. I hope that even if your Christmas, or Hanukkah or Kwanza, or whatever you celebrate, didn't go the way you hoped it would, that you can  look back and remember at least one smile. Or one laugh. Or one hug. Because that it what it is about. Love and family and friends and blessings. And I hope that the new year brings you more of those, because life is better for them. And if you find yourself without one, shoot me a message. I'm more than happy to share them, even if they're virtual.

Hugs,
Lynn



Mom stealing the turtle and Kermit

 

My uncle unsuccessfully trying for a House Rules ruling to get it back for my daughter...lol...
she gave up Kermit but not the turtle



A successful House Rules ruling between brothers :)

A Starbucks Steal!!

Clownin' with my Bro

I love seeing him laugh



This we were doing to drive my mom nuts. Reading an article on my fave wrestler...lol
She was ready to keep going with the gifts 

Christmas time's a comin...how are you dealing with it?

Someone posted the other day how they were glad not to be "doing" Christmas this year as it saved on time and stress. They'd seen posts about shopping and cooking and stress and were glad to skip over it this year. It got me thinking that sometimes we let the world intrude on our wonderful times. I thought about whether or not I could choose not to "do" Christmas. I decided I couldn't. Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year. Even in rough, or lean, years, it was always a sign of "new" times coming. My childhood Christmases were filled with decorating live trees with fun ornaments and gaily wrapped gifts under the tree. I remember one year, I think I was 10, asking for a "china doll." Unbeknownst to me, what I wanted was a porcelain doll. My parents took me literally though and I got my first ever geisha doll that year. I still have it and it started a love of the orient that still influences my shopping today. I now have a fun collection of geisha dolls and look for more to add all the time. I remember getting New Kids on the Block stuff, (Yes, I still love them...don't judge), a pogo ball (who remembers those?) and as I got older, drawing things. Color pencils, sketch pads, paint by numbers. Loved it all. One most memorable year, I opened a closed box and shrieked before realizing what was in the box was not a rainbow colored snake but a tie-dyed t-shirt tied up like one. Petrified is too mild a word for my fear of snakes, but he grew on me and I had him for almost twenty years before my then young daughter unraveled him. I still have the little plastic sunglasses that were perched on his head and she still runs around in the shirt.

There were Christmases with not so fond memories. The year I miscarried two days before Christmas was particularly difficult and the first Christmas without my, now, ex was brutal. Much drama surrounds that and won't be gone in to here. There was the year my mom volunteered to work her second job on Christmas morning so her boss could be with her young daughter and we needed the money. That sucked at first but my brother and I turned it around. She hadn't had time to decorate working two jobs so we went into the shop, carefully dug through her boxes and decorated. It was corny and not the most tasteful (we were only 12 and 9) but she got home and was thrilled with the surprise. Even in the crappy years, I found that if I could immerse myself in family and food and music, it eased the painful feelings. Christmas lights never fail to make me smile, I sing Christmas carols starting in November and play with the buttons on the Christmas decorations we sell at work all season. I get laughed at sometimes when I say I've started decorating a couple weeks before Thanksgiving but I stopped apologizing for it because it makes me happy and I think, if it's not hurting anyone else, so what?

As a child I also developed a love of Christmas vinyl. My grandma would do her Christmas baking to the shiny black vinyl of Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Perry Como and many others. After she passed, the tradition faded but when over the last ten years, I've hunted and searched and now have a spiffy little collection that, when I want to wander down memory lane, I can and remember her with much love. I also remember she put tinsel on her tree until it was almost all you could see and that out stockings from her always had apples, oranges and nuts in them. The last gift I got from her was a little green and purple dressed clown doll. She sits on my shelf to this day. I remember on the other side of the family, I always got a cute sweater or something from my grandparents and was jealous the boys got handmade shirts. I was 16 before I convinced my grandma to make me one of her famous denim shirts. She did it so well, someone stole it less than a year later. Not cool. We always got to open one gift on Christmas Eve and it was whatever we got from my grandma that lived out of state. I have several awesome handmade quilts still.

Now Christmas revolves around my daughter. She loves it as much as I do but we're careful to remember what it's really all about. We love giving gifts but know that when times are lean, it doesn't matter what's under the tree, but who's around it instead. This year has been a little rough but we're bangin' through and will enjoy it to the max. My character Aurora, you find out, avoids Christmas because of the pain it brings her heart. You learn more about that later but it makes me think...Christmas is what you make of it. If you let it, it will be stressful. If you let hurt invade the season from the past, you'll not enjoy it. Think about what it is that's making it not enjoyable and decide if it has to be that way. Does the hurt from years ago have to take away from the joy? Does not having "enough money" have to ruin it? Can you put the focus back where it belongs? Whether it be Christ, family or whatever...I hope you can. I hope that it becomes what you want it to be.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza or whatever, I hope it's a beautiful time for you. I wish you loads of love and happiness.

Merry Christmas,
Lynn