Tis the Season

I'd been feeling kind of bah humbug about Christmas. The stress of the end of the semester had really gotten to me. Then yesterday morning I went to my kids' school for the annual "Singing Off the Walls." It's about 45 minutes of singing Christmas carols including a special song performance by each grade.

The kids were all so excited. Songs that they were super excited about would come up on the power point and they would just cheer and clap... I found myself getting choked up, so much so that I had to stop singing. There was just something about the unadulterated enthusiasm I felt in that gym that really brought it all into perspective. This is a wonderful time of year, of family and helping each other out and heck giving and receiving of presents.

Another interesting point of reference... I was telling a friend of mine, a childless friend, about how on weekdays when my kids have school, it's like trying to wake the dead to get them all out of bed in the morning. Then come the weekend or vacations, like we're currently in, they're up at 6:00 am. Craziness. My friend said something like yeah, but they're living up their vacation. Taking advantage of every second. Now that I'm an adult when I take vacations I look forward to being able to sleep.

It's so true. It's easy to be jaded and cynical when you're an adult, to lose sight of the small things in life. So as I reflect on the holidays this year, I want to try to look at how I'm going into this time off of vacation with my kids. It's a time to have fun and enjoy each other, to be thankful for what we have and to remember and help those that don't have. I wish everyone (probably the whole 3 people that have read my blog :) ) a very Merry Christmas and a joyous and prosperous New Year.


amor y paz,
me