My heart is happy and I know why!
After a busy day which began by waking up to my daughter and grand puppy, took me from veggie pickup to grocery shopping and finally more wrapping, I am happy to say, I’ve found my Christmas spirit.
Call me weird, but I get very excited over veggies. Today’s box included a large head of cauliflower, celery, round carrots, spinach (which I need for Christmas breakfast), lettuce (which I dropped off at the local pet store as I don’t want it to go to waste), two lovely artichokes and an avocado, PLUS a whole bunch of oranges! I’m doing the happy dance over all of that bountiful goodness. Some of it became tonight’s dinner and some will be Christmas breakfast, but I’ll have some things to just play with too!
But again, I digress. While running errands I was alternately talking to my daughter between her errands and texting two of my adopted kids (not while driving of course!) about Thursday’s festivities. It finally hit me why my spirit was proving hard to raise this year. I needed my people! The day got an even more wonderful boost when I got to join in the skype with my son-in-law who is several months into a very long deployment! If all goes well, he’ll be here via skype for both Christmas Even dinner and our Christmas morning chaos. Though we all wish he could be home, we’re doing the next best thing so he can still share our Christmas insanity.
Today, I wrapped while my daughter cooked dinner, and we chatted and joked the whole while. My heart grew three sizes and I felt like myself again, filled with joy and feeling like a giant smile. Even without our traditional shopping silliness, the holidays came to my house after all, and I feel incredibly blessed.
The newest additions to my family are blatantly disrespecting the Christmas tree.
I knew there would be issues since Scrappy Doo (aka, demo boy) and Pyewacket (aka willing accomplice) had never seen a tree in the house before, albeit a fake one, but I had no idea they would be so creative. With a little help from Toby, who insists that his 20 pound bulk won’t disturb my skinny little six foot tree, Scrappy quickly found his spot on the lower branches of the tree, bending the poor things beyond recognition, but hopefully, not beyond repair. On the bright side, they’re leaving the packages alone. At least I had the foresight to earthquake strap the tree to the wall!
For now, the neatly wrapped packages are piled around the tree or stuffed in stockings and the detritus from a few days’ wrapping frenzy is neatly stowed. All that remains is some cleaning, our traditional Jewish Christmas Eve dinner and a couple of good nights’ sleep before my living room becomes a chaos of ribbons, wrapping paper and heaven knows what else my disturbingly creative daughter has come up with for us this year. ( last year it was a nerf gun fight in my living room, and I’m still finding the disks in the most unlikely of places!)
Sundown tomorrow rings in the beginning of Christmas and the end of Chanukah.
This is my last chance to wish my Jewish friends and family a very Happy Chanukah, clearing the way for me to wish a Merry Christmas to one and all. For those who may be feeling less than joyful this holiday season, and I know many won’t for their own reasons, I hope I can spread the joy I’m feeling around enough to help them at least tolerate all of the jolly people around them. If this year holds more pain than joy for you, I wish you healing in 2015.
My gratitudes tonight are:
1. I am grateful to have reconnected with my holiday spirit.
2. I am grateful for the days I get to spend with my daughter and grand puppy.
3. I am grateful for my adopted kids and the very special joy they bring into my life.
4. I am grateful for the friendships I’ve made, the ones I’ve lost and the ones I’ve strengthened this year. Each and every one changed for good reason, and has made my life better for it.
5. I am grateful for an overflowing of joy, enough to spread around as far as I can reach, and maybe farther.
6. I am grateful for abundance: joy, love, friendship, sharing, forgiveness, inspiration, imagination, health, peace, harmony and prosperity.
Namaste
