Christmas, Over for Another Year

I, for one, am glad to have the holidays over, or at least the Christmas portion of it. There is too much tension surrounding this holiday and it always seems a relief to have it over.

We celebrate our family gathering off the actual holiday day, as it makes it less stressful and reduces that push and pull you get from family. With my two kids married, they have familial obligations with their in-laws, and in some cases, a second separate set of in-laws.

A number of years ago, with my separation and divorce, the kids might have felt torn, felt they had to choose one parent over the other. As I worked weekends and holidays it was an easy solution for me to volunteer to work Christmas, to make New Year's our special holiday, and let the kids go to their grandparents' place as had been the norm before the divorce.

Moving ahead, same kind of scenario, the kids had to juggle the holidays with exes of their own. It works, with the parents coordinating schedules so we could have all the kids together at the same time. It took some quick talk and careful planning.

Aren't they lucky that I am so flexible. Tell me where and when is my attitude.

I think Christmas is so much more than just Christmas Day. I like to do a month's worth of celebration. When my kids were small we did the parade, breakfast with Santa at the dept. store, the party at the library and of course, dinner at Swiss Chalet with the free chocolate. It was Chinese dinner for New Year's.

This year I did 'Purses for Sisters' with 2 of my granddaughters. This is a charity event for women, homeless and in a shelter. We shopped to fill a couple of purses with much needed items and the township distributes them to those in need. We delivered the purses to a drop off location that just happened to be a deli, and had a nice lunch while we were there.

We all need those feel good moments, knowing we've helped others less fortunate than ourselves. And it was nice to see the girls so enthusiastic to help.

Celebrate the small things, make the holiday special. Like putting up the tree, decorating the house, wrapping gifts and of course, baking. The holidays are more than big dressy parties, large gatherings and gifts. The holidays are about those special moments shared and remembered.

The holidays are what you make of it, so make it count.