It sure is a cliche to say that it is important to appreciate the little things, but I don't care! It is a valid statement, and the theme for this particular blog post.
I am home for Christmas, and with that comes a whole variety of emotions, as I'm sure EVERYONE can attest to. Every year, however, it is getting more and more difficult to ignore just how much everything keeps changing as I grow older. We have lost people I care about, pets I care about, traditions need to change, and sometimes we cannot all be together as we would like. The reality is that there is no possible way things can remain as they were when I was little, and for some reason I have pretty much accepted this in every other aspect of my life: except for Christmas.
However, this year I am irritated: I am sick of feeling sad for everything that is different, and everything that is not the way I would like it to be. I have decided that instead, I am going to think of all of the little things that I love about Christmas, and being home, and I am going to seek it all out, and enjoy every drop instead of focusing on the negative. Now don't get me wrong, I know it is important to feel sadness and loss and to morn changes, I just think there is a difference between morning and wallowing. I choose not to wallow.
I began my Christmas enjoyment journey with a trip to the good ol' Safeway down the street. I found myself buying an assortment of odd items that included: eggnog (of course), fruitcake (obviously with the marzipan icing, I don't even need to clarify that), a holiday tin with 3 types of popcorn inside (caramel, cheese, and butter flavors, which NEED to be mixed together when eating them), mandarin oranges, and assortment of flavored processed cheeses (in a little round box that I remember so clearly from my childhood.)
With all of my treats in front of me, my mom and I dug out a bunch of old christmas vhs tapes that we had recorded off of the television between around 1986 and 1989. We put on the lights on our traditional christmas ladder that started a long time ago when my mother had a ladder set up fixing a spot on the ceiling around Christmas time. She decided it would be a cool idea to put boards across the ladder, put presents on it and decorate it like a tree! It was the right shape after all!
Anyway, we started to go through the jems, with handfuls of popcorn, as we laughed at the ridiculous 80's commercials: my favorite part.
A few highlights included the mcdonalds commercial where Ronald is skating with a bunch of kids, and then one kid falls behind from the group and is sadly skating alone, with a cartoon deer and bunnies that look a little bit too much like Bambi characters- how Disney didn't catch that, I don't know... and then Ronald Mcdonald pops up from out of nowhere and spins the kid in a circle and puts him back in the group. Another goodie was a commercial for extra with the most amazing jingle that I'm sure you can all remember: "When you're chewing extra, that extra fresh flavor lasts an extra, extra, extra long time!" Also an oreo cookie Santa commercial, 7 up elves commercial, and a pound puppies add which is just so ridiculous, I just have to show it to y'all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkjGHbAIIjE
Aside from the commercials, we found the velveteen rabbit, sesame street christmas special, rudolph the red nose raindeer, frosty the snowman, and one I had completely forgotten about: The glow friends christmas special. The glowworms and glowfriends had been a line of toys that my sisters and I were obsessed with, and we had loved the christmas special too, with the glow worms saving christmas by holding hands and glowing while singing a song about glowing in order to melt an ice cage that was keeping Santa hostage, set there by an older, skinny, malicious woman with a pet fox trying to ruin christmas. You know, the usual. It was a wonderful surprise.
Next up I decided that I needed to visit the salisbury house, a tradition, and have the Classic egg Nip with the spicy mustard sauce that I have yet to find anywhere else. It was everything I remembered. Including a little heartburn later on. Totally worth it. I was even fortunate enough to have a red velvet cupcake later on at a potluck that my friend Andrew had made. Another lovely tradition of home!
Okay, so a LOT of my memories seem to include food. One thing, however, that I love from our holiday traditions is reading the night before christmas together, the night before christmas. My sister was away this year with her husband's family, so we wouldn't all be together to read it. Alright, it was sad, but as things have to move on, so do we. In fact, because of technology, adaptation is a piece of cake! Good ol' skype! We called her (a little earlier than usual, but that's okay) via skype, and my dad read us all the book together, as we unwrapped matching pajamas (my mom had sent my sister some, so we were able to open them together) flipping the pages, making the sound effects, and pointing out each of our favorite pictures. It was full of wonderful, cheesy goodness.
I am thankful this year for all of these little things and more. My family and my friends who have all had such an impact on my life at various times. I am a pretty lucky gal.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone!!
Love and Kindness all.
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