Holiday Sentiments

    This has been an incredibly busy month for me due to the holidays.  All of my time has been taken up by work, my son’s Christmas show, buying Christmas presents for all the kids, decorating the house for the holidays, etc.  Now that I am finally on vacation for a week, I finally have time to sit down and spend some time doing one of the things that I love to do the most, writing this blog.

    Luckily, Christmas went off without a hitch.  The boys got all of the presents that they asked for partly due to God’s blessings and partly due to Mommy’s foresight which included ordering some of the more popular items months in advance.  As a result, I avoided being fleeced, like I was two years ago, when I ended up paying double the price for the Nintendo Wii because I procrastinated and did not try to order it online until the last minute.  Luckily, I was eventually able to buy it on Ebay and have it delivered the day after Christmas for a mere 400 dollars.  This was definitely a learning experience and it has caused me to begin to look for presents as early as November to make sure they are delivered on time and so I won’t be taken to the bank.

    I really think people lose their minds during the holidays.  I’m not sure if it is the stress of holiday shopping and the pressure to spend loads of money but there definitely seems to be a level of insanity in the air.  I always feel a build-up of excitement leading up to Christmas day only to experience that it goes by way too fast for all of the effort that was put into making this day so special for our loved ones.  It took three hours to wrap gifts that were unwrapped in less than 30 seconds.  All of it was worth it to see the looks of joy on the faces of my sons as they realized that they has received pretty much all of the gifts that they had asked “Santa” for this year.  This is something that I pride myself on, the fact that my sons are very appreciative of everything that they receive despite the fact that they live a life that I consider to be one of privilege. 

    The reaction of my sons was very different from that of one of my nephews who seemed to be unimpressed by the present that I went crazy to find, at the last minute, and that I paid quite a bit of money for including the price of expedited shipping to make sure that it had arrived by Christmas.  I have to admit that I was somewhat disappointed at the way he casually tossed the item aside as if he had just wasted precious moments of his life opening it.  Most kids these days do not appreciate the sacrifices that we make to provide them with luxuries and experiences that we were not afforded growing up.  This is partly the fault of a materialistic society and partly our fault, as parents, for spoiling our kids and not teaching them the value of hard work.  I, myself, have been guilty of this and I find myself trying to play “catch-up” and teaching my children these important lessons.

     I now look forward to a new year with my loved ones.  Any opportunity to spend another year on this earth is truly a blessing in light of all of the tragedies that we hear about on a daily basis.  You’ll have to forgive me but I always tend to get a little philosophical and reflective at this time every single year.  As we prepare to look back upon, and to begin, another decade let us reflect on those things that truly matter such as family, good friends, our health, and all of our many blessings.  It is very easy to get caught up in living life and to forget the things that truly make our lives worth living.

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