THE GIFT THAT KEEPS GIVING - NEWSLETTER 12
While I typed my last letter to you, I had mused on the fact that I have sent out letters every month like clockwork and gotten so consistent in blogging monthly. It is probably one of the many other things I am proud of this year, and even though I don't know what 2024 holds I am knocking on wood hoping it is as great as the 2023 blogger me. Merry almost Christmas and Happy Holidays my lovelies.
There is an unspoken heaviness in the air around Christmas holiday seasons that most people feel and may not fully understand, taking over the most important reason for the season. I for one have always thought that this holiday season should be handled with sober reflections on the true meaning of what it is. We got a gift from God: Jesus, and his birth is still celebrated centuries after as one of the best bedrock gifts for Christianity. We should be reminded that the most important thing this season, besides sharing love, warmth, cookies and gifts is still giving all of this and more beyond this season. Be the gift that keeps giving, empathizing with the heaviness, anxiety and burden that is associated with the end of the year and beginning of a new one. Finding the real joy of Christmas does not come from the hurrying and the scurrying to get more done but making other people the next focus of the season. Our celebration of Christmas should be a reflection of the love and selflessness taught by the birth of Jesus. Giving, not getting, brings to full bloom the Christmas spirit. We feel more kindly one to another. We reach out in love to help those less fortunate. Our hearts are softened. Enemies are forgiven, friends remembered, and God obeyed. The spirit of Christmas illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world’s busy life and become more interested in people than in things. To catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable, and it becomes the Spirit of Christ.” – Thomas Monson. I want you to know that more often the week of Christmas or few weeks after can be stressful and I hope this post is part pep talk and part sage advice about how to let go of the things that steal our joy and how to find wonder in the days before and after Christmas. Here's what I am doing better this year that might help you enjoy the glorious Christmas better, I've made a list of the things I have left to do for Christmas that are definite musts like last minute shopping and sending the last of my Christmas cards and gifts out. I am the queen of holographic meatloaf so I don't have any special recipes to share for nice meals, I only get by on what I can make.
Now to the other good stuff, what are some Christmas traditions you and your family share this period. I have been asked this question too many times in the last month and considering my roots it hasn't gotten any easier to answer it. I mean if you're African, there is only one tradition you most likely have, a rut ingrained in your teeny tiny head as a child. Go to church dressed in your Sunday best, eat your weights worth in food, open gifts or not and finally go to sleep. Same old same old, so if this counts as a tradition then by all means this is all the answer we need. I sincerely hope you are feeling like you are getting there with all that needs to be done? With the pro tip I just shared, I find that I'm feeling reasonably under control at the moment, which is good. But most things that are left need to wait till it's a bit closer to the end of the year, which puts me on edge a little if I'm honest, I'm not good with last minute stuff. Still I guess that means I can sit and binge watch my shows and I'm sure it'll all come together in the end anyway. As you well know, this is our final newsletter and I have decided to just pop in quickly before the D-day to wish you a Merry Christmas! I couldn’t let the year end without telling you my sweet blog family how much you all mean to me. I’m so touched that you have let me be a small part of your day every month. Your support put the sunny in sunny side up for me. ALWAYS. Thank you for reading and for being here with me this year, and I am still knocking on that wood hoping 2024 is even better.
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