In November I flew West to spend Thanksgiving with my family. I haven’t been home as often as I like, but over the past few years I’ve realized that it’s important to spend time with the people I love. As we prepared the Thanksgiving feast, I looked around at all the familiar items I’d looked at for nearly 60 years. My mom’s recipe box, and her old copy of Better Homes & Garden’s recipe book were always in the kitchen.
After serving nearly 25 people, we all started cleaning up and doing the dishes. My mom, on the other hand, had all the grandkids running out to get her Christmas tree and all the decorations. I thought to myself, “Well, we’ve barely digested Thanksgiving and here is Christmas.” The next morning my mom was eager to start decorating but I felt time rushing past me and I wasn’t all that excited to get started, but I helped put up the Christmas village and we hung several Christmas wreaths around the house. It was starting to look a lot like Christmas. On the day we were getting ready to fly back home, my mom made an off hand comment but it hit me and I could feel tears starting to form. She said that she just wanted me to feel like I had been home for Christmas too. I realized that I hadn’t been home for Christmas for over 15 years and my mom was giving me a gift. It was a true gift from the heart.
As we celebrate this year, maybe we can each find a little bit of home and fine the true gift of Christmas.
Merry Christmas!