Are you ready for Christmas?

10 days ago I was decrying how few season's greetings had been sent. My Christmas card display looked like this:

As of yesterday's deluge of 8 cards, I can't even see my back door through all the beautiful photos and sentiments. Sending and receiving holiday cards might be one of my favorite traditions - I love to be thrifty but I will shell out obscene amounts of money in stamps to say: Merry Christmas, I'm thinking of you!

Last evening I went to a Christmas program for my niece and nephew and then raced home to commence making puppy chow. Although I have baked some for the holidays, I limited myself this year to gifts of gingerbread and puppy chow for snacking. I decided there won't be an absence of sweets anywhere, and they don't need to live at my house!

I still have some gifts to wrap, but they will get done (I HATE WRAPPING!). More importantly, I have watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, The Family Stone, and Love Actually. In fact, I have watched some corny Hallmark movies as well.

This evening I have 3 different holiday festivities and 2 different gatherings this weekend. Despite feeling overwhelmed I am reminding myself that soon if will be over, the decorations will come down and soon it will be bleak January and February. It's less about being ready (cooking, cleaning, wrapping) for Christmas and more about being ready to enjoy (even the wrapping) the experience of Christmas.

And with that corny realization, I wish you a Merry Christmas. Also, my post from around this time last year still holds true. It helps me enjoy every moment of this crazy, wonderful, snowy, joyful and stressful season.

"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is my favorite Christmas song. I don’t think there is a version I don’t like, but my favorite has to be James Taylor’s rendition, followed by a close-second with Judy Garland’s Meet Me in St. Louis version—it is the original, after all.

When looking up the history of the song (or using Wikipedia, you decide), I discovered that the song has often been called depressing and the lyrics have a changed a little bit over time. Garland’s version was recorded in 1944 and later Frank Sinatra’s slightly altered version was an extremely popular version. Right after the song was recorded in 1944 it was extremely popular among WWII soldiers, as you can imagine.

 I enjoy the song because it reminds me of the peace I aspire to at Christmas-time, as well as how much a year can bring. When I take stock of my life over the past year, it is amazing how things have changed and grown. If you just have a little patience, time can do so much good. And even if things aren’t the way you imagined, have a nice little holiday with those you hold dear and hope for the best.

So, have yourself a Merry Christmas.

Parenthood-and Christmas Peace (what is making me happy this week)

As I think about what is making me happy, I find myself imposing rules on my new blogging tradition. For example, because it is Christmas time I could easily compose a post about my friends, family, getting together, baking cookies, etc. However, they are not something you, as a reader, have access to. (Sorry, you can’t have my mom or her Christmas dinner). So, instead I need to write about something in pop culture & Christmas that is making me happy—perhaps I should post the official rules sometime...
 

For me, Christmas and the winter holidays are some of the best times to watch television. Christmas movies are always on and can be DVR’d and watched at my leisure. As an individual that lives in a VCR-less household, this means I consume the old favorites like White Christmas and Holiday Inn as well as the cookie cutter plots of Hallmark and Lifetime movies. However, my absolute favorites are holiday specials/themed episodes of my favorite prime time television shows.

So…drumroll…the most recent episode of Parenthood from December 11^th is making me happy. The episode is titled “What to My Wondering Eyes” (and it is available to be streamed here). For those of you who don’t watch the show regularly, I will provide a brief synopsis (although NBC does a fine job hooking you on-line). The plot focuses on the Braverman family—the parents played by Bonnie Bedelia and Craig T. Nelson and their 4 adult children and their respective spouses and children. You see the families gathering for dinners, taking their children to school, struggling with the challenges we all face in life, and then coming together as the larger Braverman clan.  It is not critically acclaimed in the way that The Wire or Breaking Bad is, but it reinforces that family and community is so crucial to a fulfilling life—in the same way that a show like Gilmore Girls did.

Anyway, back to the Christmas episode that is making me happy and for me, embodies the Christmas spirit. My favorite character, Christina, has been undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer and in the most recent episode ends up in ICU with a life-threatening infection. Needless to say, this is an absolutely heart-wrenching episode. A friend of mine created a subtitle for the episode, “Weep, America, Weep.” Christmas Eve becomes the turning point in which we see if Christina lives or dies and the whole family struggles with her health status. Of course, all of this is happening against the backdrop of providing a “normal” Christmas for all the young children in the family—a set of actions that are even more poignant in light of recent tragic events. The narrative juxtaposes Christina’s struggle for life, most poignantly illustrated by a video she leaves for her children in case she passes on, with the desire and need to believe in Santa Claus.

The episode embodies what I value in Christmas: family, faith, and a renewed look to the future. It also reminds us that Christmas is not just a time to be charitable to those who may have less than us (although that is admirable and necessary to live in community) but to also keep in our thoughts and prayers those who are struggling over the holiday season because of health or personal tragedy. You don’t need to a lot of money or presents to celebrate the holidays but I do believe Christmas requires peace—peace within yourself, especially. And this year, especially in a small town in Connecticut, finding peace may be nearly impossible.

So perhaps this episode doesn’t necessarily provide joy, but anything that can provide the Christmas spirit that comes without, as the Grinch would say, presents, packages, boxes, or bags, is making me happy this December.

 
PS A previous version of this post stated that Glen Hansard of Once fame was on the show. My husband kindly pointed out that Glen Hansard made his appearance the week before. I apologize for the confusion and now urge to watch that episode and the one that I waxed on about in this post!

My Christmas Checklist

My Christmas shopping is almost done...just 2 gift cards left to purchase. Mom and I shopped at Mayfair while Stephen and my dad went and got our Christmas tree last Saturday. Friday we pasted the final stamp on our batch of Christmas cards. This past week we decorated the tree and today I put the finishing touches of ribbon on it. This morning we had Christmas brunch with Stephen's family. So, we are all feeling festive.

Next on my list? Wrapping the presents and Christmas baking. Ginger snaps and puppy chow are must-haves, but I am looking for something else besides fudge for this year. Any suggestions?

Our stockings are hung with care (no chimney, sorry)

We have trees big...

...and small. Enjoy your holiday preparations!