Musings

Pileated Woodpecker decorating our sassafras tree with big holes.

Well, well, well, it’s December 2010. Just yesterday it was January 2010 and we were all smiling and shiny-faced, and looking forward to 365 days that were better than the previous 365 days. It’s a good thing we didn’t know what was coming, as many of us have had another difficult year. (At least that’s true among my friends and family.)

But even with the prolonged hard times, I find myself thinking ahead to next year with the same sort of optimism and hope for positive change. It’s funny how the simple act of turning a page on the calendar can stir us to reassess our lives, isn’t it? I have some grand thoughts swirling around in my head, but they need some more time to coalesce. (One of them involves renaming my blog. I want to write about lots more things than just knitting….)

I’m trying to stay in a calm state of mind as I go through this month of craziness. I don’t know if it’s my imagination, but it seems that people are already in a frenzy on the roads and in the stores. I was almost hit twice yesterday, and my husband’s car was totalled on Friday when a woman ran a stop sign and slammed into him. (Thankfully he wasn’t hurt, but he tells me his car spun 360 degrees around….so we’ll be getting some precautionary neck x-rays this week. My chiropractor says it can take up to a year for  neck injuries to become apparent, so better safe than sorry.)

Our town has a beautiful light display that draws people from around the state, so I plan to spend as much time as possible enjoying that. (That link is to a YouTube video of the lights taken by a total stranger.) I’ve started my shopping too, sticking to small but thoughtful (I hope) gifts to show people I care about them. Every year I find myself feeling dismayed at the materialistic way our culture celebrates the Christmas holiday, particularly when it comes to gifts for kids who already have too much stuff (IMHO). I wish today’s kids could know what life was like in simpler times (yes, back in MY day…I’m old enough to be able to say that now).

Can you imagine getting your family to sit down and play a board game these days? My mom insists that our family play a couple games together before we open gifts on Christmas Eve. She spends December preparing fun games and buying small gifts to use as prizes. Sometimes the games involve family trivia, like the year she asked, “Which person in our family has lived in more than 16 different places?” (Answer: me!)

We all pretend to dread the games, but deep down we love the family time and laughter. There’s always at least one light-hearted argument about who really won some game, often because Mom forget to decide on the rules ahead of time…she’s a riot. This year we’re playing Family Feud – and I predict there might be another “feud” too!

My family in 1966. (We were ages 5, 3, and 1.)

I love how my parents, especially my mom, get such a thrill out of having the whole family together in one room for a few hours each year. It’s so hard to get everyone in one spot nowadays, now that we’re all busy with our own lives, and my sister and brother each have kids that take up so much of their time. And Eric and I live 300 miles away from everyone else, so that adds another layer of complexity to family get-togethers. But for three or four hours on Christmas Eve every year we’re all back at our childhood home, squeezing three generations into a small room for the festivities. (And if my niece happens to have her baby a couple weeks early, we could have four generations together…that would be so awesome.  Fingers crossed!)

I hope you also get to enjoy some special time with your distant loved ones this holiday season.

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