Merry Christmas

It has all led up to this. All the shopping, all the gift wrapping, all the decorating, all the cooking, all the preparation, and all of everything else you did to prepare for the 25th of December. It's finally here and, frankly, it feels like it got here faster than ever.

Oddly, at least for a Minnesotan, the temperature is above freezing right now, there's mostly snirt (snowy dirt) scattered around, and you can see pieces of grass here and there. Isn't it supposed to be freezing out with feet upon feet of snow piled in the yard? I know that part of the reason Christmas felt like it got here so fast is that it never quite seemed like full on winter yet.

Regardless of what Mother Nature decided to do for the month of December, Christmas is here. I'm at home spending it with my family (right now waiting for everyone to wake up). My brothers probably won't get up until noon if we let them sleep!

We'll go to church this morning to celebrate. We'll return home to eat lunch (which I don't think I need since I ate so much last night). Then we'll open our presents... which used to be my favorite part of Christmas, but now I really don't want too much, so presents aren't as integral to the holiday season as they were in my childhood and teen years. Oddly, though, I still love to get presents for people. I just don't like receiving them.

In the spirit of the holidays, try to do something nice for someone. Go out of your way a little bit to help someone out. Give a hand with the cooking or cleaning. Pitch in when there's something to do. Be a dear and think about other people first. Just simply try to be considerate of others. Sometimes it's hard to do and might involve doing things you usually wouldn't, but suck it up and do it without fussing. You can be a jerk the rest of the year if you want, just be nice today :-)

So Merry Christmas to you all out there. Let's hope your day goes wonderfully and that when it comes time to lay yourself down to sleep tonight, you can look back and know that it was a good day.