I have kind of a love-hate relationship with Christmas. The saccharin music that plays on the radio doesn't seem to hold the spirit of Christmas to me, and by the time the holiday actually comes around, it seems as if there should have been more meaningful things to celebrate the reason for the season.
The difficult thing is that Wifey's family are Christmas-aholics. Anything that they can do to celebrate Christmas is encouraged. I do my best to play along, but I often feel a bit empty by the end of the season.
This year, Christmas was different. I was able to see one of my sisters that I don't get an opportunity to see very often. We had Christmas a week early with my parents, but the best gift was the time I got to spend with her. She has had a rough go for the past couple of years, but while she was here with her family, all we heard was laughter and all we saw were smiles. She is moving on with her life, as are her kids.
While she was here, my father-in-law was hospitalized for some bleeding in his brain. He had a sub-arachnoid hemorrhage, which resulted in a few trips to the emergency room and a couple of different stays in the hospital.
Having both of these experiences sure gave me a different perspective on the holiday season. I found I spent more time thinking of the people I spent the holidays with than all the crazy people rushing to buy the latest and greatest new widget. My Christmas shopping was completed in about two and a half hours, and since we were on a strict budget this year, it was easy not to pick up just one more thing.
In short, I experienced old wounds healing, and new wounds starting this Christmas. It helped to help me forget about some of my own wounds, and helped me to make the holidays meaningful this year. What is a good story without a little bit of struggle?
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