Last call for Christmas: Going … going … gone
Well, Christmas has come and Christmas has gone.
It goes by way too fast, doesn’t it?
All of the worrying we do.
All of the preparation.
We are constantly wondering what we should purchase for those who mean the most to us … and then pray that it will be something they won’t want to return.
We stress about how we are supposed to pay for it all … with money we don’t have and credit cards with no vacancy remaining.
Then there is the time-consuming decorating that goes into creating our holiday displays … only to be taken down soon after everything is finally put in its proper place, and the hours spent baking and cooking and cleaning.
It’s as if everything has to be perfection — but nothing is perfection.
The only perfection to exist in this world is the one who was born on Christmas Day.
We seem to forget that.
We get ready weeks or months in advance — sometimes as soon as the stores put their merchandise out on the shelves, and that seems to get earlier and earlier every year.
Christmas ornaments should not be located anywhere near back-to-school merchandise — I don’t care how much of a bargain I can get for it.
Then there are those who begin buying holiday items the day after Christmas.
These people are already preparing for next year — just at a lower cost.
They are planning none-the-less, and looking toward next Christmas’s “perfect” holiday celebration.
Why are we always in such a rush?
Why are stores in a huge hurry to get out the next holiday’s merchandise before the current holiday is even over?
For example, on Christmas Eve, I went to a couple of stores and there were Valentine’s Day items situated beside the Christmas décor.
Why?
Can we please just celebrate the holiday in the here and now and stop rushing through life rather than enjoying the moment?
We should try that sometime.
Of course, before you know it, we will blink and Christmas will already be here, yet again.
So, with that, this is going to be my last column relating to the holiday season until then.
Well, at least until March or April when my family and I will hopefully be celebrating our Christmas.
Despite the fact that last week I told you how we would not be celebrating Christmas this year, Wednesday actually turned out to be a pretty nice day after all.
We all shopped for the one person whose name we selected. That way, no one was left feeling without.
I thought that was the game plan — at least that’s what I was told.
But somehow, my mother once again went out of her way to ensure that everybody received a very nice gift.
Something we truly liked — even though we had no idea that we even wanted it prior to the moment when we opened it.
How does she do that?
Her gifts, her cooking the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners, are always greatly appreciated.
We don’t tell her that often enough, if we tell her at all. We take it for granted, as many people probably do.
Thank you is an easy phrase to say and means the world to people when you say it.
We need to say it more often.
She continually makes our holidays special and unforgettable. Thank you, mom.
What made the day complete was when my youngest son, Noah, managed to FaceTime us from Poland. We talked for a while.
I never realized that a heart can somehow find a way to smile. That is the gift he unknowingly gave to me this Christmas.
As I watched him on my phone’s screen, I looked at the man on the other end of his camera. The man he had become.
And yet, I still saw the little boy who would always hold my hand when I was driving on the snow-covered roads and scared to death. I still saw that toddler who lay beside me to give me comfort whenever I became filled with anxiety and had panic attacks for no reason what-so-ever.
As he told me “Merry Christmas,” I noticed he was sitting on the ground inside a tent. The tent that serves as his only home.
I asked if he was going to be given Christmas dinner.
He simply responded, “no.”
Just another working day for those serving in the armed forces, I guess.
It hurts my heart to know that some members of the military do not even have the chance to join in the celebration of Christmas, the day we all consider to be a day of perfection.
Perhaps we will be a little closer to the perfection we all dream of when those who are serving and those who have served our country are remembered and shown the appreciation they deserve.
I still plan to celebrate Christmas with him when he returns. Even if it is going to be in March or April. He deserves a tree. He deserves a gift. He deserves a nice meal, holiday cookies and Christmas classics played on the stereo. They all do.
Until next year …
Happy New Year!
(Stenger is the community editor for the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times. She can be contacted at jstenger@heraldstaronline.com.)