Joan you touch my heart.
Dan
At 06:25 PM 12/3/2011, Joan Anglin said something that elicited my response:
Nicki
I think most of us have some problems around the holidays as we
cannot do "our holiday traditions" as we used to. Christmas has
always been a huge holiday for us, including a 15 foot lighted tree
on the barn, lights all the way around the house and the barn (600
feet worth) etc etc and so forth! Slowly but surely over the last
21 years I had to cut back on the scale of our decorations because
of limited help. Luckily my grandkids love decorating the tree so
we make it a party. The three middle ones each invite one or two
friends and we have cookies, hot chocolate, toasted marshmallows and
in between all of that the tree he gets decorated! Of course it is
not just what I would have done, but it gives me great pleasure to
watch them argue over where each ornament should go, and tell their
friends about where each of the ornaments came from and which ones
they made. Do I envy my family that can still go and cut down their
own Christmas trees-yes, they always get me a nice one-and I have to
stay at home because of snow, of course I do. But I try to find
something else to take its place.
Now thanksgiving is another story, I have to work very hard to keep
my spirits up as I lost my beloved youngest son in a car accident
the day before thanksgiving and my mother went into the hospital the
same day and passed away two months later. I found that changing
our traditions of always having thanksgiving at my house and
encouraging the married children to alternate hosting it helps me a lot.
I agree with Wheels, 15 is an earth shattering experience J. My
daughter was 15 when I broke my neck and now 21 years later we are
the best of friends and have found that sweet spot between mother
and daughter and caregiver and helper but it definitely was not
always that way. Trust me, it will get better. J
Maybe you can plan to find the needy person at Christmas, invite
them for dinner and give them a small gift to share some of the
blessing that you have even though they are different from what you
want to do. We try to find an elderly person (im not elderly yet-72
is a spring chicken) LOL, through the senior center here in Reno
that has no family and bring them out for the day and usually the
staff at the senior center know what they would like and helpless
with choosing a present.
Have a happy holiday, even if it is not exactly what you want just
remember we are all blessed to be able to do what we can, there are
so many people we do not have what we have however little it is.
Merry Christmas Joan
Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a
friend, an acquaintance or a stranger.
- Franklin Jones
