Mamacita says: . . . and so another Christmas Day has come and gone. The day after Christmas always seems sad to me. Christmas itself takes such a long time to get here; the calendar turns to fall and fall brings thoughts of winter and winter without Christmas would be exactly the horror C.S. Lewis paints it to be. We need December in all of its holy and secular incarnations. It gives us hope. Reasons to go on. As Allison Kitchell says, in the Christmas novel What Child Is This that I’ve already quoted several times but am not finished quoting yet because it’s packed so full of great ones, “December is the crown.”
Christmas takes a long time getting here, but it’s over in the wink of an eye. It’s over. 24 sixty-minute hours made up of sixty-second minutes, but the day went by so fast it made my head spin. On Christmas Day, we live in hyperspace. I could almost see the clock hands spinning around and around, and it seems as though the chimes were ringing every few minutes instead of on the hour. It comes too fast and it’s over too soon.
It’s over, but it’s the crown. December is the crown.
Einstein was right: it’s all relative. Days like today yesterday go so fast. Christmas Day has the same shelf life as any other day, but it’s always thus with the things we love most: time passes so much more quickly when we don’t want it to. If only we had the power to slow time down a bit when wonderful things are happening. . . but then, when wonderful things are happening to somebody, someone on the other side of the world, or the street, is weeping and broken-hearted. It’s all relative. And when we know something lovely is fleeting, we tend to appreciate it more.
We are all fleeting. Therefore, let us all try harder to be kind, and honest, and considerate, and helpful, slower to pass judgment, quicker to assume the best of people, more inclined to work hard, be braver, more trustworthy, and cleaner, so that anyone and everyone we encounter is encouraged by our lives. Let us all try to pay attention to each other, and bolster each other, and do our fair share and then some, and extend a helping hand whenever we possibly can. Today, it’s someone else who needs help. Tomorrow, it might be us.
Because it’s fleeting. It’s all so very fleeting.
Let’s do the Time Warp again.
Christmas is not complete for me yet. My daughter was not here; she had an opportunity to go to Puerta Vallarta with her boyfriend’s family. They paid all expenses and I was happy for her, but it did not seem like Christmas at all. Yes, my Dad, sisters, and their families were here; but it just wasn’t Christmas for me.
She comes back tomorrow, but we will not be able to celebrate together until after the first of the year. She has promised me that she will not go away for the holiday again; Christmas with the family is too important for her.
In other news, *someone* drank the individual bottles of champagne I had hidden in the vegetable drawer.
Sigh.