The two-week run of The Nutcracker is over and now I can relax a little and enjoy Christmas. What a better way to start than eating a delicious St. Lucia cookie, Tonya’s deeply rich and thick hot chocolate, reading from Tomie dePaola’s Christmas Remembered and enjoying Christmas music in our living room now bedecked with beautiful decorations?
One of my favorite things to do when I was growing up was to go in the living room, put on a Christmas record, turn off the lights and just sit and watch as the flashing lights from the Christmas tree cast a multitude of changing shadows on the walls. That always brought me such peace and calm. It was always fun to look at our Christmas records and decide which one to listen to for the next 30 minutes before having to change sides or pick another one. Now I have iTunes loaded with over 16 hours of Christmas music. Very convenient, but this just doesn’t have the same feeling as flipping through the record collection or even a CD collection. Progress? Of course, but there is often something lost with even the best kind of progress.
Before we got married I must have told Tonya that I wanted to start a Christmas book collection because she got me a book that first year and has given me one (sometimes more than one) every year since. I discovered tonight that I don’t think I’ve even read one of the books we’ve already had for a few years, or maybe I just don’t remember the stories. That’s one of the benefits of having a forgetful mind—I can experience things over and over yet enjoy them like it’s the first time each time! I love books and will never get to the point where digital replaces real print for me, so just like getting out the Christmas records every year at Mom and Dad’s was something I really enjoyed, every year I’ll be able to bring out these old friends and enjoy the Christmas season as I read to myself and my family.
I’m not sure how successful I’ll be at this but as I sit here enjoying the peace of a Christmas night I’ve decided to try and write a little something about Christmas each day. Hopefully I won’t be overly sentimental but more importantly I hope you enjoy it!
Merry Christmas!
