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The countdown continues until Christmas arrives. If it were a race, we'd be in the home stretch. So, what's in store for us in this final week and two days?
Hopefully, most of the preparation is done. Hopefully, food for the feast has been bought, baking is done, all is decorated, cards have been mailed, gifts are bought and wrapped, and maybe we can find some time for our self and our loved ones.
It's time to drive through the neighborhoods after dark, and see the decorations that adorn homes all over our communities. Maybe we can find a radio station that plays Christmas Carols and let the music add to our ride through the streets checking out the festive decor.
If you have little ones, maybe you could spend some time reading books with Holiday themes. Maybe we can also include books with Hanukkah and Kwanzaa themes, and explain to our children and grandchildren that other children may celebrate this time a little differently, but celebrate certain traditions of their faith and/or heritage similarly to how we celebrate ours.
Maybe we can sit with the kids, as a family and watch an animated Christmas Program, or a Family Christmas Movie on television while enjoying some hot popcorn, maybe a hot chocolate, and just spend some quality time with each other from our immediate family.
Maybe we can find time to meet up with an old friend, or someone who has lost a loved one the past year, or someone who might just be alone this Christmas, and go out for a cup of coffee, share some stories, and look out a window and watch the rest of the world scurrying around hectically.
Maybe we can find time to just be by ourselves and handwrite a letter to someone, just to say hello and catch up a little. Maybe we can find time to pause, take a breath, and reflect on all the gifts life has given us. Maybe we can sit and think of how we might be able to try and be a better person in the upcoming New Year.
As Christmas Eve gets closer, with little ones getting more excited every day, maybe we can sit and read them C. Clement Moore's classic, "Twas the Night Before Christmas," and then read them the passages of the Good Book telling the First Christmas Story, set in Bethlehem.
As Christmas nears, and if you don't know how, learn to Zoom and arrange a time somewhere close to Christmas, and Zoom and talk as close to face to face as you can with loved ones that you can't be with this holiday. Zoom read "'Twas the Night before Christmas," with your grandchildren, or sing a Christmas song together with them.
When you are out and about you can give the best Christmas gifts you can possibly give when you smile at someone, say hello to people, wish people a Merry Christmas, shake hands with someone, and in any, and all of these situations, do all these things, not only when encountering people you know, but especially to those you don't know.
Too often, we are so busy and wrapped up with the many lists posted on the fridge, telling us what we have to do before Christmas Eve and Day, that we forget many of the little things that put us in a better mood for the holidays. I once read a comment, by someone (can't remember who) that said that about (can't remember the percentage) of things we worry about, never happen. Most of what we worry about are ideas, or objects, or places, but holidays should be about the people with whom are special to us, and close to us. That is especially true about Thanksgiving, which we celebrated a few weeks ago, and Christmas which we are about to celebrate.
The last week before Christmas doesn't have to be a stressful, hectic time. We can control that ourselves, and maybe make it the best week of preparation we can have. Sometimes, all it takes is to simplify things and continue to think about who is important as much as you think about what is important.
Have a great next eight days before Christmas!