Christmas Spirit

As we don’t have a tree up this year and the economy has kind of crunched our purchasing activities we have had a really tough time getting into the “Christmas spirit”.

I tried several things—listening to and performing Christmas music, making cookies, drinking lots of Abuelita, and incorporating winter smells into our house, but nothing really worked.

Then the following happened:

1) The ladies in my performing group invited me to participate in the gift exchange that I had bailed out of due to the aforementioned crunched purchasing activities.

2) Went to a Christmas party.

3) Then the big one—three of my co-workers, acquainted with the lack of Christmas décor in my house (due to it being staged), brought me a wonderful little silver tinsel tree and tiny colorful bulbs. Serious turning point.

4) Went to another Christmas party.

5) I worked on some gifts.

6) My grandpa (who had fallen down the stairs and broken his neck and spent 3 weeks in the ICU, 3 weeks in a long term acute center, and 4 weeks in a care center) went home!!

7) My brother (who I didn’t think was coming home for Christmas) will be home next Wednesday!

I guess the biggest thing I’ve learned is that the Christmas spirit seems to be a lot more about having people who care about you than I ever really understood before. Also, having the little tinsel tree on my desk really helps, but probably half of what makes me so happy about that is the fact that there were three people in my office who cared enough about me that they spent the time/money to bring me Christmas joy. I hope I never forget how I felt when they came up behind me and sang “We wish you a Merry Christmas” and I saw the tree. If I can remember that, then I’ll always be able to feel the Christmas spirit.

P.S. I’m entitled to write two cheesy posts devoid of cynicism twice per year. This is one.