Thursday, November 13, 2014

Holidays Fly By

The holidays are approaching again.  The time for family.  The time for giving.  The time for reflection.  The end of a year.  A new year begins.  

If you are religious; of course depending on what religious; there are numerous celebrations.  If you are Christian, its celebrating the birth of Jesus.  I won't pretend to know all the other religious celebrations off the top of my head.

Of course when I was a kid Christmas was mostly about what I was going to get.  I went to Catholic school, so there was a lot of activity at church as well.  The church was always done up so beautifully with the Nativity scene and Christmas decorations.  Usually there were Christmas pageants and the choir to sing at midnight mass.

As a parent I got excited about spending Christmas Eve wrapping all the kids' presents after they went to bed until nearly dawn and watch them open them Christmas morning.  Seeing them be excited about getting most of what they wanted on their list.  Watching them perform in Christmas shows, etc.  

Now its mostly about the rare opportunity for the kids to all get together.  It's the one time of year they work at all getting off from work to be together.  They have a great time together and the laughter is pretty constant.  I love this time with all of them together.  Now that there is a grand-baby we all dote on her and spoil her as much as we can.  This is what Christmas is all about now.  Watching her open gifts is the fun stuff now.  Especially this year when she is old enough to be more cognizant of what they are.

I cherish these rare times they all get together.  I imagine there may come a time where they are unable to all make Christmas so I am very thankful for the ones we still have while we can.  Life goes by so fast.  It doesn't seem so long ago my kids were just little ones on the floor opening their presents like the grandbaby.