Let’s All Keep Christmas Well

Let’s All Keep Christmas Well

Christmas is just a few days away. And if you’re lucky, you will be gathering with your family and friends to celebrate the Joy and Love that Christmas brings.

But mot everyone is that lucky though. Many are spending Christmas alone. Many are homeless and some are sick. Some shiver in the desperate cold of the unlit forgotten alleys of this desperate world.

And then there are those of us who are blessed with children and grandchildren. My two amazing kids have made their way in the world and I’m so proud of them both.

This year for the third Christmas Eve in a row, my kids won’t be coming home for Christmas Eve. For the third year in a row, the annual Christmas Eve gathering at my house won’t take place,  but this year, I’ve been invited to spend Christmas Eve with my youngest and my oldest and his family will be coming home for Christmas dinner.

Nothing is so certain a change – whether it’s Christmastime or not.

For decades, my house was aglow with the conviviality of family and friends. Christmas Eve was a very special day at my house, but not so much anymore.  for the last two years, my house has been empty and quiet on Christmas Eve. And I’ll be honest, at first, it ate at me. It gnawed at my soul. It bothered me — a lot.  And just to be blunt — it hurt. Change is not easy to accept, but there’s no way anyone can avoid it.

But then, like everyone else, I have a choice. I can choose to be miserable and reflect on what I don’t have and what will not be. Or I can choose to count the blessings I do have and what will be. And remember that life does not always unfold the way we wish it would or how we plan it. By accepting that there is change is inevitable and by counting all the many blessings I do have, this Christmas will be just fine even if it won’t be the way it used to be. I’ll be blessed all the same, just differently.

Looking back…

When I was young, I used to visit my grandparents on Christmas Eve – but only for an hour or so and then I was off with my friends. After I left their house I never gave a thought about them sitting there alone after I had gone. And I used to spend Christmas morning with my parents. We’d open gifts and then I’d hurry off to spend the rest of the day with my friends.

Young people are often not the most thoughtful, I guess. But that doesn’t make them wrong. We were all young people once and I’m betting I was not the only one who wasn’t always very thoughtful. When we are young, our lives are simpler and we have endless tomorrows to correct our mistakes.

When I was young the thought of me being a parent, heaven forbid a grandparent, was as foreign to me as setting foot on the planet Mars or herding a flock of goats on some mountain in the Himalayas.

It’s funny how life goes in circles, isn’t it?

This Christmas Eve, my house will be quiet – but I’ll be at my youngest son’s house, celebrating with family and a bunch of people I don’t know. Blessings all the same.

And yes, in my heart, there’s still a little hollow place — my kids and my grandchildren won’t be coming home for our traditional Christmas Eve gathering of family and friends.

Friends drift away and death continues to whittle away at my family as it does to all families. Things change and time goes on. I am not going wallow in the sadness by counting the things and people that are missing – I’m going to celebrate and count the many blessings that I still have.

The end of my Christmas Eve tradition began two years ago when my youngest was a thousand miles away serving free Christmas dinners to the poor. He and his troupe served hot food and good cheer to over 5000 homeless people and their families. That’s what I call putting the Christ in Christmas.

How lucky I am to have a son like that! A blessing indeed.

And my other son is visiting with his wife’s family on Christmas Eve. But you know what he does? Every Thursday, he takes an hour out of his busy day to take me out to lunch. No, he doesn’t feel sorry for the “old man”, he does it because he enjoys our time together – and so do I.  And he and his family will join me for a traditional Christmas dinner. More blessings I can count.

When I think about it, I have many blessings to count — and I will. It makes no sense to feel sad because of things I don’t have or won’t have this year.

So I will take time on this Christmas Eve to count the many blessings and gifts with which I am blessed.  I not going going to waste even one second pondering the things I don’t have or feeling bad because some Christmas traditions will only now live in the past.

This Christmas Season, I’m going take the time to remember how lucky I am to have the wonderful children and grandchildren I have. And how lucky I am to have all of the memories I have. In my heart, I know my family and I shared them as we made them together. And I am blessed in more ways than I can count.

Good Lord willing, my children, grandchildren and I, will have many more memories and good times yet to share.

Yes… I have many blessings to count and it’s time I started counting and remembering them all.

Christmas is a special time. It’s a time for remembering just how lucky we are and how much each of us is blessed. Christmas is a time for remembering those who are less fortunate. It’s a time for sharing and a time for caring. It’s a time to forgive and to forget. It’s a time for giving. It’s a time for doing all the things that Jesus taught us to do.

No matter what your situation is this Christmas, I know you that you have more blessings and gifts to count than you know. I hope this Christmas that you take the time to count them all.

May your Christmas be filled with family, friends, good times, joy and good cheer. And most of all, may your Christmas be filled with Love.

As Charles Dickens wrote in “A Christmas Carol”:

“And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!’’

And Tiny Tim said: “God bless Us, Every One!”

God bless us every one!

Let’s all try to keep Christmas well.

Merry Christmas!