We’re getting close to my favorite time of year. I am an unabashed and unrepentant lover of Christmas time, in all of its glorious corniness. I love Christmas carols, Christmas parties, but most of all Christmas Day. I can remember Christmas as far back as the age of 3. I still remember one special year in my early teens when I was overcome with Christmas spirit, feeling so good about the season and just general happiness that I wondered at myself. This feeling lasted until well after Christmas and no, to all you cynics out there, the feelings were not chemically assisted. Every year since then has been an attempt to recapture that feeling. Most years I get it in bits and pieces, mostly associated with time I spend with my family and friends. I served 27 years in the Army and made it home every year for Christmas for except for three years. My wife and kids smile behind me, good naturedly, because they know how important Christmas is to me. I know there are those raging elements or hipsters out there that bemoan what modern Christmas has evolved to. Some say it overly commercialized or others not properly religious. It seems there are always those elements in society – Grinches for lack of a better term. These seem to be people so unhappy with their own lives that they target times or traditions that bring happiness to others for scorn. I could not care less about these self-important gas bags. There is nothing in life more enjoyable than being around people you love and actually taking some time out of the all too busy lives we all lead to just simply be together. This actually caused some trouble a few years back in my marriage because my wife would each year state in October or so that she hated Christmas. I know she did this as kind of a backhanded tribute to her older sister who tragically died at a young age of lung cancer. For years afterwards my wife would feel guilty about feeling good about Christmas because she remembered how much her sister loved it. I finally told her how much this bothered me and that her sister would be royally pissed off at her if she knew my wife was using her as an excuse to be miserable. She’s been better the last couple of years and this year has actually thrown herself into a Christmas cookie baking frenzy. I am extremely excited about next week when both my children, my sister’s family and some friends will join us for Christmas. So to all of you out there that bad mouth Christmas – get a life; the rest of us already have one and we’re going to have the merriest Christmas of all in spite of you or more correctly in homage to the love we are blessed with of each other. Merry Christmas!
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