Merry Christmas, 2011

White Christmas at the Cabin
December 25, 2010

It snowed at the cabin on Christmas Day last year, making it one of the sweetest in my memory. It ranks right up there with Christmases from my childhood, back when a year seemed like an eternity and December 25th truly was the best day of the year.  Back then we didn't get toys except on Christmas, and our "new" clothes came in a giant cardboard box from my Great Aunt Minnie.  We didn't mind though because even as hand-me-downs, they were nicer than anything we could have afforded.
 
We did get a new pair of shoes from Coolick's most every fall for the start of school, and we saved the shoebox for Christmas when we would decorate it with crayon drawings and notes to Santie Claus.  On Christmas Eve we placed the shoebox strategically in our small living room - maybe on the wide arm of the big green vinyl sofa or the matching chair. Where ever we left it, Santie Claus knew to leave our toys next to our shoebox. He left the toys unwrapped, placed perfectly for maximum magical effect.  Then he filled each shoebox with a single red delicious apple and a big navel orange, assorted nuts still in the shell, old fashioned candy, and some Wrigley's chewing gum.

Every year without fail, Mama woke up in the wee hours, or maybe never went to bed, to light the Christmas tree and the gas space heater. Once the scene was perfectly set, she called to us from the small hallway, "Wake up, Santie Claus has come!"  Even at 50 years old, in an instant, I can reconnect through memory to the joy and magic of that moment - the single best moment of the single best day of the year. My wish for all of us is that we find that joy this Christmas. We won't find it in the harried, frazzled shopping, spending, doing, and going that this holiday has become. We'll find it in simplicity, in generosity of spirit, and in slowing down long enough to reflect on what this season is about. May we all find joy and peace this Christmas.  And always.

Wishing you joy and peace at Christmas.
And Always.

Merry Christmas.
love, Pat

A peaceful, joyful Melvin.
December 25, 2010

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