It is the morning of Monday, November 23, 2020 as I write this. Only 32 more sleeps until Santa comes and just 39 days until 2020 is finished.
Christmastime always makes me reflective. I like to have a mental wander through my year and, sometimes, the years that came before. It reminds me to be grateful for what I have, for all of the positives I’ve experienced over the years, and the negatives I’ve experienced, as well. Change just one of them and life is totally different. That’s not something I’d want because, overall, life is pretty good.
This Christmas and, indeed, this New Year, will be very different for many of us. Like a lot of you, we’ve been talking with the rest of the family about, at least possibly, having a remote Christmas and New Years. Definitely not ideal but, potentially, safer. Can’t imagine having to live with infecting (and possibly killing) anyone in my family. I would urge you to consider a remote holiday season, as well. It isn’t worth the risk.
So, we’ve begun to mentally embrace the video chat Christmas and we’ve suddenly realized that we can include so many more people in the celebration. Uncles, aunts, and cousins, who we typically wouldn’t see around the holidays because they’re celebrating with their own families in Northern Alberta, England, and Australia, can be included with, for example, Facebook’s video chat feature.
That gives it the potential to be an extra-special Christmas. And that’s only one of the reasons. Over the next 32 days, I’ll be posting reflections on not only the upcoming remote Christmas and the year just gone but, extra-good Christmases of the past. Maybe even one or two of Christmases future. With the way 2020 has been, I suspect a great many of us are going to really have to work to find our Christmas spirit. I’ll be working on finding mine right here.
I hope you’ll join me.