Truths: Ho Ho... ugh

Five weeks from today is Christmas… It really doesn’t matter that next week is Thanksgiving. Merchants don’t care that we haven’t even digested our turkey dinners. They have been clearing the aisles and putting up Christmas trees before the Halloween candy was even handed out.

We wonder why we don’t feel the spirit of Christmas anymore – why we don’t enjoy the holidays (why do we even say that as though it were plural? We don’t get to celebrate Thanksgiving and who cares about New Years… After Santa makes his last drop, the Valentine cards and candy are out enticing young lovers)

Even TV has rushed us through the holidays. We watched Greys Anatomy last night and they were already ringing in the new year! I guess Seattle doesn’t even celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. Maybe it’s too rainy?

Anyway, I actually love getting gifts and truly love, even more, giving them, so Christmas should be a perfect time for me.

But, I find myself overwhelmed by the holiday. Frantically begging my kids for wish lists and scurrying around box stores and the internet to grab whatever I can find that will bring my family joy.

A new shirt, a webcam, a TV, a DVD, itunes… the list goes on. And deep down I know, we all know, it’s not those things that bring anyone lasting happiness.

For a fleeting moment, maybe even 24 hours, there is joy but before the tree is ever taken down – that moment is gone.

It doesn’t mean I won’t keep scurrying around like a crazy squirrel frantic to hide that last nut before snowfall.. I will be… but,I am left to ponder how to make this Christmas more meaningful for my friends, my family and even me.

Sure we could help at a soup kitchen or feed and walk the shelter dogs on Christmas day, but there has to be something that can inspire us from within ourselves.

I think whether it be Christmas or not, we are all searching for that “thing” that will fill a void we feel in our soul. Our lives have become so entangled with TIVO and texting and emailing that we have forgotten what it is like to sit on the front porch and watch the world go by or to sit in front of a Christmas tree with some hot chocolate and sigh, realizing how lucky we are to even just “be.”

This year as the UPS truck pulls into my driveway and the bags from Walmart stack up in the wrapping room…I am going to make a commitment to take a moment now and then to just “be” and to attempt to find the joy and the magic in the holidayS.

I think that if I take those moments here and there, not only will I actually enjoy Christmas and calm my soul, but I will be able to share my newfound holiday spirit with the people around me: my family and friends and encourage them to do the same.