Last month was a bad month for me. I’m not going to go all melancholy on you again but the Lillian thing really threw me for a loop. Though I only had emotionally immature thoughts like “How is this life worth living anyway if I don’t get to have my dog with me??” (stomp, stomp) for a week or two, lows are lows are lows. It doesn’t matter where the hell come from when they hit you in the gut with a closed fist.

But you were there.

You empathized. You understood. You cared. You emailed. You called. You were a good friend and made sure I got my crunked up toe polish fixed. You invited me to your super cool party last night and even let me bring my kids along. (BTW, I think my oldest thinks your oldest is pretty dang cute.)

I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you. Really, you make a difference in my life and I love you for it. I love you for spoiling me.

And Nintendo? I love you, too. I am a walking Wii Fit advertisement today just for you.

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Family!

It’s Kim and me with details on the Christmas Twist, as promised.

Instead of everyone buying everyone a gift, we’ve hatched something that will be gentler on your wallet AND easier for those of us who hyper-ventilate over just the thought of shopping. Not to mention how much time it will free up on Christmas day to catch up and drink egg-nog.

Let’s give it a shot this year and see how we like it, shall we?

Here’s the scoop:

On Thanksgiving everyone who plans to go to Kim’s for Christmas will have their name added to the hat. Each person separately adds their name. For example, I will add my name. Eli will add his name. Henry will add his name. And Joe his.
We will draw a name at my house on Thanksgiving. You may not be at Thanksgiving but plan to be at Christmas. In that case, we will add your name(s) and let you know via e-mail who you “picked”.

At Christmas, you will gift the person whose name you drew during our traditional One Gift at a Time Around the Circle. This will equal one gift per person at that time and thus one turn around the circle THUS a much shorter circle time THUS much more time to spend enjoying the day and each other.

You may have other people you’d like to gift and that is a-okay but during the circle it is one-gift-per-person.

We hope you understand and appreciate why we are doing it this way. We really want to shift our focus from things to people. Plus whose got the dough this year anyway?!


Thoughts? Feelings? We welcome them all. It’s not total Socialism yet.

Love,

Kim & Meredith

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Thank God my first real mention in a newspaper is not in the Police Report section. Nana will be proud.

No Thank You?
Fauquier Times Democrat
November 14th, 2008

When I was a young girl, things were as they should be. September was the month we all headed back to school. This did not occur in the middle of sweaty, hot and humid August but properly - after Labor Day.

By the beginning of October, kids and teachers alike were settled into their routines and thoughts of Halloween sprung up as the homemade decorations of jack-o-lanterns and black cats filled the classroom walls and windows.

Halloween was not a commercialized holiday back then. It was an inexpensive, fun day and night where children could make their own costumes, grab a pillowcase and hit the neighborhood with visions of candy corn dancing in their heads.

I was a punk rocker, a hobo, a princess who was made to wear a turtleneck under her gown and a ghost with my Daddy’s pipe. These costumes were all homemade or handmade and barely cost a dime.

Back then, Halloween felt like a tradition rather than the money-spending frenzy that it does today. Once October 31st was behind us and our candy was checked and cavities fed, it was time to reflect upon and prepare for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving has always seemed to be the most pure holiday in the trilogy. No costumes, no games, no presents, no decorations - just families getting together to be together and to be thankful.

Thankful. I knew what it meant. I’m sure you did too. We knew that we should be grateful for having a huge turkey dinner with Aunt Sally, Cousin Mike and Nana in attendance.

We rolled our eyes as we were forced to go around the table and each say what we were thankful for but we knew its importance. Many had to wipe their eyes and noses so a box of tissue was kept close at hand. We were delighted to have a four day holiday from school and that the scent of that first precious snow was in the air. We were thankful. Oh yes, we were.

Every year, all of us kids knew that the Monday after Thanksgiving meant Christmas decorations were on the way up. The malls began to decorate inside and out, parking lots full of pine trees would line the streets, shops put blinking lights in the windows and families unwrapped attic holiday treasures to display. It was thrilling to be a child and everything had its time and place.

Now it seems that Thanksgiving has gotten lost. Halloween has morphed into a huge money-making commercialized holiday second only to Christmas. The “Holiday Season” has been making its debut more and more prematurely each year. Why just last week I was in Target trying to find some last minute Halloween costume items and none could be found. Instead, the workers were busily setting up Christmas trees and blow-up snowman displays. I kept thinking, “Why can’t we just be patient?”

Today Halloween is over, holiday catalogs are cramming my mailbox full, pumpkin lots are making room for fir trees and Santa is already getting ready for his annual mall gig. Meanwhile, I think we’re being robbed. And what’s worse - we’re stealing from our children.

They need and deserve a Thanksgiving. It creates and provides a necessary balance in their hearts and in their minds. It teaches that in this fall season of goodies and games and gimmies, just being together is the most important thing of all. It reminds us to reflect upon what we have been blessed with and to say thank you.

A chance to say thank you - why on earth would we ever want to overlook that?

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