So.. It’s December 11/ 2008, 2:41 as I currently sit here typing … and It’s getting closer, I can feel it…. the lights, the glitter the tinsel and the snow….the abundance of red and green and white… the candy canes… It’s everywhere….and i felt, that having this blog or outlet to rant and not updating in a while… I would have the perfect opportunity to talk about whats on every Christians mind… Christmas….Now, I had the idea to write about this exact subject today at work because of something a co-worker joked about at work today while out on my 15 minute smoke-break.   She was complaining about the weather and someone said we needed some snow, and that it wasn’t Christmas without snow, and she smartly replied, “It’s the birth of Christ, where he was born they don’t have snow”… so I thought it was funny and being as simple minded as I am, I decided I would write about the topic of Christmas, in my usual unstructured and grammatically incorrect way.

I’m sure most of you are scrambling around trying to find that last minute gift for that special someone, or just picking up a few little things for the person who should be on your list and you just plain forget, or well.. your like me and you haven’t even started…. but inevitably you’ll be standing in long lineups fighting to get out of there… pushing your way through hoards of people to get what your looking for… and it’s just part of your Christmas routine, I am just like you all, I haven’t even started yet, and I have two special occasions in a span of less than 10 days… the lady friend has a birthday coming just before Christmas, so I have to buy two extra special gifts… and although I have a bit of an Idea as to what I should get her… I have to make it good… and hope I pull through …. and if not.. well.. my bad.     I’d tell you about it, but well.. she may be reading, so I’ll have to keep that hush hush… can’t spoil the surprise, and to any of you in a similar situation as I, Good Luck.

But I wanted to talk about something else… What does Christmas mean to you??? What do you remember about Christmas, whats Your meaning of Christmas???

Christmas is alot of things to me, and my definition and outlook on that has changed alot over the years, my family are not with me, and live in another part of the country, and my daughter lives with her mother, so my Xmas isn’t exactly picture perfect, aside from the fact I’ll be spending the 24th, 25th and 26th at work, answering phone calls and dealing with other peoples problems… So I can’t say I have alot to look forward to this Holiday season and probably am not as stoked as some for the holidays, but I’ll do what I can to make the best of it, most likely spending some time with my daughter and seeing her gifts and playing with her, and spending some time with the girlfriend and her daughter, and most likely all the latter will be brief due to my working schedule… but again, I’ll make due.. I hope…..

But I can say with certainty that I have fond memory’s of Christmas and what it means or meant to me…. I have a pretty big family and we all generally lived on the same street.. so there were alot of holiday gatherings and lots of fun times… but mostly I remember the times I had with my Grandparents, my moms mother and father… they were like my second parents, and my Grandfather was like a god to me.and my Grandmother was an Angel.. he was the greatest man I’ll ever know..and she was the strongest women that ever existed… and that’s fact…in my eyes, I remember every minute I spent with them… and Christmas especially, sitting down in the living room with him watching Hockey or the annual Christmas Daddies telethon which is a big thing where I’m from to raise money for the needy… we would sit and chat and talk while my Mom and Grandmother would decorate and chat it up with whoever dropped by.. All of the family would drop in and out briefly but I didn’t want to be anywhere else… and this was long before Christmas was even around the corner…. once Christmas time came, it was the same, we would open a few gifts at our house and then it was off to “Ma and Papa’s” which was what we affectionately called our grandparents… and we would sit there while they opened there gifts and stayed there for the remainder of the night eating and chatting, and even tho it wasn’t much to some people…It was big to me,  I got to see most of my family, aunts , uncles, cousins and everything in between, all at the center of my universe, my grandparents little house… and… well, it’s years later… and time has passed… but when I think of Christmas… I don’t think about gifts, or music, or snow or Santa… I think of them… Johnny and Kathleen, Ma and Papa, my Grandparents… they were my Christmas… and even tho they have passed on… Christmas is there Holiday… and I miss them dearly… I wish just once I could go back to that overdecorated little house and sit on the edge of that couch with my Grandfather as he clicked away at the remote and my Grandma bickered and joked with the women of the family out at the kitchen table drinking there super strong tea..lol… I miss you both Dearly Ma and Papa…. Merry Christmas…..

So that was my sentimental little journey into the past…. but well, the moral of the story is this…. Christmas isn’t about Gifts, or Snow, or Decorations… it’s about what you make of it, and who you spend it with… never take the little things for granted, because when they’re gone.. you’ll want them back forever…. So wherever you are this Christmas… make the most of it… and spend as much time as you can with your loved ones…. It’ll be worth it in the end….so to you all… Have a Merry Christmas… or Happy Holidays… You only live once…. Live Once…..