I am thinking about the upcoming holidays. Around here we have a Thanksgiving Day and then Christmas a few weeks after. I will have some time off work and school for T-Day, which will be grand, and then a week after the end of school it’ll be X-Mas Time. I know the rest of the world doesn’t celebrate American Thanksgiving, though our North-of-the-border cousins have their own variety in October, but much of the world does celebrate Yuletide in one variant or another. I love the end of year holidays!
It is no secret that my favorite season is autumn. In more sensible areas than Texas, my current residence, the air is crisp and cool, the leaves change color and fall to crunch underfoot, and you can smell wood fires as they heat homes. Here in Dallas, today, it was 72F and sunny. Not a bad day, but not quite one on which to heat up the fireplace either. I am thankful for temperate weather, though for the rest of the week it’ll be proper sweater weather.
I am thinking about the upcoming holidays. This will be my thirty-sixth time celebrating with family and friends. I know when I was younger, holidays were the best, but in some ways, I enjoy them more as an adult. The experience seems richer, somehow. The freedom and the fun, the joy and the jubilation remains; but it is stronger, more potent, and deeper, somehow. I love the feelings the holidays bring, especially when I can share them with my parents, my wife, my sister, and her kids. The unrestrained exuberance of shredding wrapping paper on Christmas morning isn’t mine so much anymore, but I still get that from my nieces.
Thanksgiving is all about turkey and football and punkin pie, as ever, but the day spent preparing food and enjoying it, and then relaxing with those I love is like being wrapped in contentment. I am thankful for many things this year, and I will give those thanks into the universe, because I believe the practice of appreciation to be important. I am grateful for my health – still here after Covid tried to kill me, and I’m not getting over that one. I have a great wife, she who keeps me going. Grad school accomplished the goals that I set for it. I feel ready to move into the next stage of learning and life after I finish studies in a few weeks. I have toys to play with and the means to enjoy myself, even if sometimes it is a strife against sadness to get there. Eventually I arrive in a space where I can create, and I love it.
I am thinking about the upcoming holidays. I get so much from being able to give to others. I know there is so much more than American rampant commercial capitalism, but finding the right thing to bless someone with never fails to bring happiness. And it isn’t always a thing either, sometimes it is an experience or an intangible feeling. Sure, the aforementioned nieces love the things, but they are young yet. Everything for a season, and who doesn’t love unwrapping toys?? I sure still do, if I am honest. Christmas is more than presents, and the greatest gifts are our time and presence, which I can give in abundance.
When Thanksgiving break hits on Wednesday, I am going to break out the Christmas decorations, one of my favorite activities this time of year. I remember my mother unpacking Christmas year after year, and the magic of the lights, the colors, and the pretty things, the special objects that helped to focus that magic into a season. I love doing that for myself and my wife. It never fails to make me smile when the place is decorated and each time we come back home to see all the pretty. We have a new tree for the living room, and I’ve got a few ideas of how to switch up decor for this new holiday time. I can’t wait to see how it will all work together. I can practically smell the magic, and the pine, on the air. (The pine might be artificial, as this is Texas, after all.)
I am thinking about the upcoming holidays. Movies, memories, and fresh-made hot cocoa on a cold night: just right! I enjoy the music that we pull out once a year to sing along to, to quietly contemplate, and to spin on the record player. I have my favorite renditions, as do we all, and each year I add to my playlist new covers and new songs. I love Apple Music for being able to instantly add and stream things I’ve never heard before. (Add technology to my list of thankful notes.) I love my HomePods so I can listen anywhere in rich, space filling sound. I love my AppleTV for being able to watch holiday films, both old classics (The Muppet Christmas Carol, The Santa Clause) and new discoveries (Spirited!). Yeah, I’m a fanboy. Shrug emoji.
I’ve a smile on my face for the holidays are here! Seasons greetings to you as there are more than the two holidays I celebrate. However you choose to spend your end-of-year, I trust you will be able to do it in the way that brings you the most of whatever you need. I’ve got turkey in the freezer, a wish-list growing, and a term paper to write. It’ll be a quick break, which I need, then a final sprint to a few weeks well-earned comfort. I don’t want to rush anything because I want to savor everything again this year. The season seems to hurry by more quickly as I get older, but my capacity for it has only grown in proportion to its haste. Besides, I get to decide now when to put up my tree and when to take it down, so the season can last as long as it needs to!
I am thinking about the holidays, and soon the bird will be in the oven and Santa Claus’ll be coming down Santa Clause Lane!
a simple man 