My favorite day of the year is almost here!!! I love Christmas. I love it because stuff is sparkly, I can give away presents to people without seeming like a weirdo, Christmas songs are a blast, and some other reasons that escape me
I don't buy into all the "Christmas just doesn't mean anything anymore-it's too commercialized!!!". It's always been commercialized -check out the history of Christmas traditions. This is not something new. I think that people are more apt to not feel the connection to the "real" meaning of Christmas because the family unit is becoming more and more fractured and dissipated. We're evolving into new traditions and the voice most people listen to is the media and business sector instead of God or whichever higher power people believe in. Sometimes I think that people who complain about Christmas being too commercialized are the problem. When you focus on something, it becomes your reality. Therefore, I choose not to focus on the seemingly "commercialization" of Christmas, but the wonder and the good things about it. I start planning for Christmas in the summer. I am not caught unawares and am not a last minute shopper. Most of my gifts are well thought out, researched, and bargained for (watching for good deals). I rarely pay full price for anything because I start early enough that I'm able to take advantage of awesome sales every once in a while (Amazon.com is awesome for that).
I believe that Christmas is about family and not only about celebrating the Christian Lord's birth, but also celebrating life, family, friends, and goodness in the darkest days of the year. It's no mistake or coincidence that Christmas is celebrated around the winter solstice. Christ was not born in December -historians will tell you that and so will leaders of the church. However, the celebration of Christmas is in the end of December because it's uplifting to have such a celebration in the middle of the winter. The shortest day of the year was just this last Sunday. There was more darkness than light. That's damned depressing!!! It's also at this time of the year to counteract many pagan rituals surrounding the winter solstice. Just like Halloween was "toned down" by the Christian (Catholic) feast days (all souls day & all saints day), so was winter solstice (pagan) activities by celebrating the Christian God.
I'm sure by now you're thinking "yadda yadda yadda" and might think I'm wrong or I have my facts screwed up. Maybe so, but I bet I got you thinking. I think that if more of us think for ourselves and trust our inner voice more often, we won't get caught up in frenzies that were created for someone else's gain (i.e. Christmas merchandising). We will also be happier and lead fuller lives, clearly giving our time to those in need instead of focusing on ourselves. I hate it when people agree with me or they right away disagree with me. I really don't need agree-ers and disagreeing just to disagree is irritating and shows emptiness in a person's life. I need people who think for themselves and can back up their thoughts not only with intelligence, but with a mindful deference to conventional wisdom. Common sense is not that common, unfortunately!
So gee, I'll get off my soap box and lookee here! It's 12:11 am. It's Christmas!!!!! Hooray! I have to go to bed, but here's a rundown of my day and my plans:
I worked at JCP at 6:45 this morning until 3pm. My legs and feet hurt from standing that whole entire time. Then, I went to Perkins and had myself some lunch/dinner (I did not get a break at JCP, though I could have...I just forgot). Then, I went to St. Joes for mass. It was PACKED there but I'm super glad I went. Then home to Ada and to Jami's house so I could see her baby again (who is cute and sweet) and celebrate Christmas a bit with her & Shaun and their parents. i was there until a little after 11.
Tomorrow I am doing nothing but reading, sleeping, making chili and packing for my trip to Perham (on Friday). I'm looking forward to sleeping all morning and being a lazy bum all day who cooks chili and reads.
Anyway, I'm very loopy right now, since I've been up since 4am. That's 20 hours, right? See, I can't think at this time, so I'd better get to bed. Hopefully stuff made sense in this blog! If not, sorry, I will edit things later when I have most of my brain left.
Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
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