Dec 03 2007
Simple pre-Christmas Pleasures
I have been inspired by a young girl. I found her blog yesterday but I can not find it today! I cleared my cache! And I cleared my History. If anybody reading this knows which blog I’m talking about, please leave me a comment!
Arggg!!
OK, I’m better now. Anyway, she’s about 10 years old and has decided to countdown the 25 days to Christmas by doing things to help other people. Not necessarily big things, but simple things… small acts of kindness and thoughtfulness. Well, I missed days 1 & 2 but I am dedicated to the remaining 23 days. I am looking for my first opportunity.
This whole idea appeals to me on so many levels, not the least of which is that (IMHO) the true meaning of Christmas is not just blurred, it’s mostly obliterated. Christmas is no longer about Christ. It is all about the big money-making-commercialism ‘thing’ which now starts just before Halloween and ends with the January after-Christmas sales. And every year it seems the retailers continue to broaden the ’season’ of spending. People spend more of what they do not have to give more of what they do not need.
I don’t know how we (me and my seven siblings) managed to grow up without:
- a TV in our bedroom
- a DVD player and every DVD ever made
- a portable DVD player (?)
- an ipod
- a Wii
- an xbox
- a cell phone
- a computer
- every video game every made
- and $100 jeans
In fact, the collective wardrobe of me and my three sisters probably cost less than just one pair of jeans that the kids wear today. Why do their parents actually buy them?
My brothers and sisters all got:
- new pajamas on Christmas Eve
- a stocking to open
- some little trinkets from Santa
- the occassional new coat, shoes and school clothes when hand-me-downs no longer fit any of us
Christmas morning we went to church. Then we came home to a house full of multi-generations of our family for Christmas dinner. It was marvelous!
I am off now to finish fluffing my Christmas tree so that I can begin hanging my treasured ornaments that I have been collecting for most of my life. In fact, ornaments are my very favorite gift, both to give and to receive. I put in some of my favorite Christmas CDs and as I unwrap each special ornament, I OOOH and AHHH over each and every one of them. I pause to remember which special person in my life gave it to me and when. This process takes hours. I look forward to it every year. My three sisters have the same tradition in their homes. It’s truly one of my life’s Simple Pleasures.
The very best job I could ever imagine is one that would pay me to think… and the currency would be wine!
