I have cold milk and homemade Christmas cookies to keep me company while I sit here, in my writing chair, just waiting for all of the amazing and wonderful moments of this 2020 Christmas season to stop spinning round and settle down….just slow down….maybe just have a seat and rest for a spell. I want to have a look. And I want to thank you.

The colors and the sounds….the taste and the smells…the reds, greens and golds of it all have me feeling giddy…like a child who’s every wish has come true.  There’s a warm glow in our home this morning. It’s still filled with the magic that has been created before my very eyes. It’s beautiful and hopeful and it feels like love. My most sincere wish for the entire human race is that we pause to look for that after-Christmas glow.  If we notice it, maybe it’ll stay around for a while. It will feel like peace and will look like smiles on most every face…Maybe you won’t see it, because they hide beneath the mask…but you can see it in the twinkle of their eyes. We can hurry to open a door for someone coming behind us. We can still buy a coffee for a stranger. We can say something nice to someone that we don’t even know. We can be grateful for what is going right in our lives. We can keep negative thoughts and words to ourselves. So that we don’t taint someone else’s wonderful day. Just because we have a thought, doesn’t mean we are destined to put those negative thoughts into words and speak them.  Bad thoughts become bad things…we don’t need that.  None of us need that. We can stop sharing rumors and we can be kind. We can begin each day with intention and that can make all of the difference.

As much as I tried to slow down enough to enjoy each and every blessing, it so difficult to choose even one to examine…It’s as though every kindness, every gift, every hug, every call, every Facetime, every Christmas song and movie, every meal and beverage, every single amazing and miraculous thing has been made into a great picture book. I just sit here and turn the pages, one by one.  Oh, how to thank you. Thank you, for everything, my kids, their kids, our friends and our neighbors, thank you to every stranger that held the door for me. Thank you, every one that sent us a card or gave us a call. I’m so grateful that you shared Christmas with us, whether here, with us…or staying safely home during this scary time.  I feel like I’ve unburied a sparkling treasure…and Christmas just turned the lights on for us all to share it.

I hate to see it go, as Christmas gives way to the hopes and dreams of a new year. Yes, I know that’s a good thing…but Christmas??? The magic of Christmas…?  It’s real and it’s warm and it makes me so glad that I’m alive.  We have much to look forward to…and I will do that. I’ll be looking ahead.  But not before I tuck all of this, this Christmas 2020, into my heart for safe keeping.  And when I feel the tug of missing my grands, missing my kids, I’ll just open my heart and look inside.  There!  There they are!!!  They’re still with me. That always feels better.

Yes, the spectacle of it all is slowing down just enough for me to grab it…look it over…give it a kiss for luck and get on with my day. Christmas day is over…but the magic lives on.  This December 26, 2020, it’s going to be a good one. I can feel it. Stay safe.