Anticipating The Night Before Christmas
There’s a moment on Christmas Eve that stands out as my favorite of the entire holiday season. It occurs at the very end of all the hustle and bustle, when the typical onslaught of holiday parties, shopping, and general busyness has finally reached a close. It comes after getting everyone dressed up for church and trying to force my children to take just one good picture in their nicest holiday clothes. It’s after the chaos of dinner and the insanity of bedtime on the most exciting night of the year. And it’s at the tail end of my present wrapping extravaganza, where I dig out all of the presents hiding…
Waiting After Christmas
I sit amidst piles of boxes and stray wrapping paper as the chaos of the last few weeks comes to a pause. It’s an inhaled breath, held and waiting before we exhale back into normal. The holidays are coming to a close; with one last hurrah, we’ll ring in a new year, the list of holiday to-dos will be finished, and Hallmark and I will both go back to our regularly scheduled programming. The days after Christmas always feel odd to me. For 24 days in December, anticipation and excitement brew, twinkling in our eyes like lights on a tree. Then the morning finally comes, and we celebrate. The paper…
The Gift of Friendship
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year… I hope you’re singing that song in your head, though you might disagree with the sentiment. Instead, it might be the most expensive time of the year, the most stressful time of the year, the most depressing time of the year, or the most lonely time of the year. The holidays have a way of sending emotions into overdrive. Twinkling lights, Hallmark movies, and sugar cookies can make some people overflow with joy. But for others, the happiness everyone else seems to feel causes a quick descent in the opposite direction. It feels like Eeyore walking around underneath a raincloud, wondering how…
