Well....here I am again, AND  in the same month.
  I am feeling a gravitational pull here, I think...I want to write, to express my thoughts, and yet............when I sit down to the computer, some times I have a very hard time capturing them, stopping them from running roughshod through my brain long enough to put them down on paper.  (if you will)

So,.....as we approach Christmas, here are my thoughts:  We spend so much time making lists, and thinking things through, and planning our shopping experiences.  So much time bemoaning the money we are spending, the time we are wasting, when all any of us want is a beautiful and memorable holiday.  Am I right?  Ask anyone, (other than a child) and they will tell you they just wish that they could sit by a fire and sip hot chocolate and watch it snow...

The Christmas season, by all accounts, (at least as told us by retailers) goes from November 1 to January 2.  That is two entire months of shopping, cooking, baking, planning, wrapping, worrying, fussing and fretting, and one entire day of spending time with our loved ones exchanging gifts, eating and making merry.  What is wrong with this picture?

So here is my proposal:  Let's just say we make December 23 a National holiday.  We'll call it Prepariboxandfretalooza day, and it will be the day when we all turn out to make each other miserable.  We'll shop till we drop, snatching and grabbing as quickly as we can off of store shelves... (perhaps this could even turn into an Olympic event), then we'll rush home to wrap, cook, bake, and fuss with one another.  There can be no merry making on this day, no pleasurable memories being made, and certainly no photographs.  It will be illegal to sit down and relax over drinks on this day, at least until after 8PM.  The only people working on this national holiday will be retail staff, and they will make triple time while they do it, and they will also be assigned their own substitute shoppers and cookers.  We will use this day to prepare our feasts for the morrow, and if we find ourselves out of a neccesary ingredient, we will have to scour the neighborhood for it, and hope that we can rely on a neighbor to kindly donate.  OR we can find our way to the nearest convenience store, where if we are lucky enough to find the missing ingredient, we will pay at least 4 times the usual price for it.
Another activity for this national holiday will be wrapping presents.  It will become an evening tradition for all to gather around together, fighting over tape and scissors, and almost gone rolls of paper.  It will go on long into the evening, and there will be at least one present in every household that gets wrapped with scraps from 3 different rolls of paper and the local newspaper, and this present is usually saved for the mother in the household.
Children are exempt from the traditional Prepariboxandfretalooza festivities, however they will probably carry the memories of short tempered mommies, daddies and grandparents well into their adulthood and so anxiously await their turn on this holiday for years to come.
The day will end with a mad rush of housecleaning, and then everyone will drop into bed dirty and exhausted, as there will be no hot water left for showers.

Now, let's talk about the rest of the holiday season.  Late mornings over coffee and breakfast will become the tradition.  There will be at least 45 days of sharing time together, of sleigh rides and snowman making (in the north) and strolling and lolly-gagging (in the south).  It'll be a time for helping neighbors with projects, for making special memories with grandma down at the nursing home.  We'll bake cookies (if we feel like it), and eat them while sitting around our Christmas tree.  We'll pick out a tree together, and take a week to decorate it, and maybe we'll each have three or four.  No single Christmas tree home will have a "theme" tree, unless that theme is kid-friendly.  Communities will have small unplanned gatherings to sing and rejoice over our blessings, as well as to give to those less fortunate.  Traditions will grow and many a family will add on to the treasured memories of yesteryear by adding a family "spa day", or "no dress day", when everyone stays in their pajamas to loll around by the fire, reading or knitting or daydreaming. We'll go out at night, carrying lanterns, and singing carols as we watch the snow fall.  Children will play, parents will smile and all will be well with the world.
The traditions will culminate on December 25, Christmas Day.  Families will come together to share a meal, and to share in their blessings.  They will spend time together exchanging small gifts, most of which are handmade, and catching up on each others dreams.  The children will all play with their cousins, taking turns holding the new baby doll or racing the new car.
As the day fades into evening, the family might load up into a wagon, covering themselves in blankets and quilts and carrying thermoses of hot chocolate and hot cider, while the horses trot through the snow and into the country.  There will be songs of gratitude, and joy and hope and peace on earth, and every child will hear the Christmas story, and learn the meaning of giving.
As the moon rises high in the sky, families will arrive back home to say a prayer together, and give thanks for this day.

That's how I want my Christmas season to be.....not stressed and overpriced.  No over expectations, and under funded.  Just plain old relaxation, love and kindness and peace on earth, starting in my family, my neighborhood, my community.

What do ya think?
National  Prepariboxandfretalooza Day?
Sign the petition here...................

A Quickie..

Just so you know, I AM still here.......................still working, still playing, still painting, still praying...I want to write, to channel the insanity from my head and heart onto paper, (or in this case, computer), but the time just does not come.
The busyness of real life intrudes, day after day, all day long, and by the time those few precious moments present themselves, I am numbing myself by stalking Facebook and eating junk food simply for the way it crunches beneath my teeth.
I know...............we hear it all of our life.  "YOU NEED TO MAKE TIME for the things you want to do"...I am virtually positive that the person who started that dirty little command had neither job, (let alone two) nor family.  And so it goes...............
We are coming up on the holidays, so maybe, just maybe I will find a little pocket of quiet, all alone and feeling inspired, to make music linguistically.............or maybe, just maybe I will find myself locked onto Facebook, (AGAIN) and chewing candy canes, over and over and over again.
In the meantime, my loves................my babies, big and small, my friends,.................those beloved ones who "get" me, my husband........................remember this:
Keep on keeping on.  One day we will meet on those golden shores again, and we will have time to talk.