The Holidays

Again, the time comes for what we usually call the holiday season.  Following Halloween, many of us look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas.  New Year’s Day follows shortly thereafter.  Then it’s somewhat of a grind until spring break and later on in the spring, the Memorial Day three-day weekend.

If the Good Lord allows, this will be my sixty-seventh holiday season.  Of course, I don’t recall the very early ones, and even later on when I can remember, I don’t recall so much any presents I received as I do the relatives who would come visit or that we would go somewhere and celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas.  It seems it was the fact that there would be people…relatives…loved ones around that made the holiday season what it was for me in the past.

And it’s the same now.  Don’t misunderstand.  I enjoy helping prepare and consume the Thanksgiving meal.  And I enjoy receiving and giving gifts at Christmas.  But those things aren’t what are truly important for me.  It’s the togetherness of family and friends that makes the holidays what they are for me.

I am not a social butterfly, even at family gatherings.  I do like to watch, listen, observe, and learn from the others.  I enjoy seeing kids grow and nieces and nephews have families of their own.  Sometimes I have to bite my tongue and not interfere in their raising and training of their kids.  And I have to remind myself that there are many ways of raising children, and that children are all different.  I also have to remind myself that the parents know their child better than I do and know better what to do.

I do take a little more liberty with my own grandkids.  But even there I do my best to hold back unless it is obvious that someone needs to step in and do something.  It’s kind of a tightrope at times, knowing when to step in and when to let go.

We had the family at our place for Thanksgiving yesterday.  That’s a few days before the holiday, but it worked out best for us to do it that way.  It was a lot of work, and we were both tired at the end of the day, but it was well worth it to see everyone and reconnect a little more with some that we hadn’t seen for a little while.

Now the fridge is full of leftovers.  Leftover ham, turkey, and some other assorted, miscellaneous things that didn’t quite disappear yesterday haunt the two refrigerators we have in our house.  We also have a few things that were left here…a sippy cup, a shirt, and a couple other things that eventually will find their way back to who they belong to.  The kitchen has been cleaned up and we’ve done a little laundry today, although there’s more to do.  We’ve vacuumed and managed to find pretty much everything.  So it’s all good after 23 people found shelter at our home yesterday.

I’m not sure what we’ll do Christmas.  I know we’ll be with the in-laws on Thanksgiving Day for yet another meal and time with the other side of the marriage.  Then the calendar hurtles on to Christmas and all that goes with that.  So it will be a busy time for us this year, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Trust your holiday season is filled with grace, joy, and peace.