Merry Christmas!
I have no idea if anyone will take the time to check out Writing in Shadows as late in the season as Christmas Eve, but all the same... Merry Christmas, everyone.
I decided to post this holiday greeting this morning, while sitting in the living room watching tv at my wife's parent's house. I was looking at the tree and all the presents underneath, and realized it seemed like there were more than there were last year. I pondered this, and realized that the reason was that the family was growing. This would be my second Christmas as an (official) member of the family, my second as a married man. This past summer, my brother in law also got married, adding yet another member to the -in-law's club (his wife and I have actually had the pleasure of sharing a number of family firsts together - including washing dishes at our first Christmas spent with the family a few years ago!).
In a rather holiday-esque moment (I have few of them... Christmas has more than its fair share of bad memories for me, truth be told, ranging from bad Christmas' fighting with my own family or others spent alone with that dreaded sining fireplace channel playing all day). I realized that as each new person became a member of this family (myself included), the gifts under the tree grew in number exponentially as everyone gets at least one gift from each of us. So, in an uncharacteristically emotional Hallmark kind of moment, those presents took on a different meaning for me - each one was, in a way, a measure of the love that was growing as the family grew larger. A physical represenation, if you want, of the fact that as each of us was made a part of this family, there was more love and more support to go around.
So as exciting as it is to open up that neat new gift (or that new pair of underwear or socks!) on Christmas morning, let's all resolve to keep in mind (even if it's the back of our minds, because the rest of our mind is overwhelmed by that spanky new toy or - if we are truly blessed by the commercial side of Christmas - that shiny new PS3 or console of choice, or the kids get the extreme tickle me Elmo - who to me sounds like he should be doing frog splashes off a steel cage onto a helpless Cookie Monster laying on a table outside a wrestling ring) that the reason there is a present under the tree is because someone cares about you.
On a very special note, a couple of close friends of ours went out and did something extra special this year and paid a visit to a local hospital, delivering presents to all the children who would be spending this Christmas there. Remembering spending a Christmas there himself and seeing many of the kids who had no presents and no one there to be with them on Christmas, he and his girlfriend wanted to try and fix that for some lucky kids this year. So an extra special Merry Christmas to both of them (you know who you are, so I won't embarass you by naming you on an online blog written by on oft-times bitter writer), and let's hope you can be an inspiration to others who read this. What you two did is probably the best reminder of what Christmas is all about that I've ever been given... not to mention a sometimes needed reminder that for all the other stuff we hear about each day in the news, there are some really good hearted people out there doing great things to make the world better... and you deserve some recognition for it. I hope you see many blessings in the future in return for bringing smiles to some deserving children over the holidays.
I know you brought one to mine.
Happy holidays, everybody!
Mike
a.k.a. the Shadow Writer... but for today, writing as just myself
I decided to post this holiday greeting this morning, while sitting in the living room watching tv at my wife's parent's house. I was looking at the tree and all the presents underneath, and realized it seemed like there were more than there were last year. I pondered this, and realized that the reason was that the family was growing. This would be my second Christmas as an (official) member of the family, my second as a married man. This past summer, my brother in law also got married, adding yet another member to the -in-law's club (his wife and I have actually had the pleasure of sharing a number of family firsts together - including washing dishes at our first Christmas spent with the family a few years ago!).
In a rather holiday-esque moment (I have few of them... Christmas has more than its fair share of bad memories for me, truth be told, ranging from bad Christmas' fighting with my own family or others spent alone with that dreaded sining fireplace channel playing all day). I realized that as each new person became a member of this family (myself included), the gifts under the tree grew in number exponentially as everyone gets at least one gift from each of us. So, in an uncharacteristically emotional Hallmark kind of moment, those presents took on a different meaning for me - each one was, in a way, a measure of the love that was growing as the family grew larger. A physical represenation, if you want, of the fact that as each of us was made a part of this family, there was more love and more support to go around.
So as exciting as it is to open up that neat new gift (or that new pair of underwear or socks!) on Christmas morning, let's all resolve to keep in mind (even if it's the back of our minds, because the rest of our mind is overwhelmed by that spanky new toy or - if we are truly blessed by the commercial side of Christmas - that shiny new PS3 or console of choice, or the kids get the extreme tickle me Elmo - who to me sounds like he should be doing frog splashes off a steel cage onto a helpless Cookie Monster laying on a table outside a wrestling ring) that the reason there is a present under the tree is because someone cares about you.
On a very special note, a couple of close friends of ours went out and did something extra special this year and paid a visit to a local hospital, delivering presents to all the children who would be spending this Christmas there. Remembering spending a Christmas there himself and seeing many of the kids who had no presents and no one there to be with them on Christmas, he and his girlfriend wanted to try and fix that for some lucky kids this year. So an extra special Merry Christmas to both of them (you know who you are, so I won't embarass you by naming you on an online blog written by on oft-times bitter writer), and let's hope you can be an inspiration to others who read this. What you two did is probably the best reminder of what Christmas is all about that I've ever been given... not to mention a sometimes needed reminder that for all the other stuff we hear about each day in the news, there are some really good hearted people out there doing great things to make the world better... and you deserve some recognition for it. I hope you see many blessings in the future in return for bringing smiles to some deserving children over the holidays.
I know you brought one to mine.
Happy holidays, everybody!
Mike
a.k.a. the Shadow Writer... but for today, writing as just myself
posted by Shadow-writer at 10:57 a.m.
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