Budget Spirit

Come tomorrow, Christmas was a full 4 weeks ago. Already? Believe it or not, you can still find a few after-Christmas sales out there. This week I found an $18 CD of Christmas music I've been wanting for just $7. I also found others for anywhere from 50 cents to $2.50. I got 6 of them this week from two different stores. As I've listened to my new music I've continued to feel the Christmas Spirit even 4 weeks after the holiday. Here's to hoping I can keep it up another 48 weeks until the next one.

Of Tree Boughs, Snow, and Footprints

How I Found My Christmas Spirit This Year was published by a Fox News writer on Christmas Eve. He describes his 2011 as being a disaster in many ways and being unable to feel the Christmas Spirit. That was until he received a card from his friend with late stage colon cancer. I've added the important part below.

A tree stands on a hill. The winter comes and a heavy snow falls weighing down its branches and the tree sometimes struggles to stand. Its boughs bend downward and are near breaking. People see this and climb the hill to help out. They have busy lives but they go out of their way to offer help. They shake the snow from the branches to ease the weight and provide some relief. But it snows again and... again and the burden is there every day. The tree is constantly under strain but people continue to come and help out. The tree realizes something. The snow which is a burden to the tree also shows all the footprints of the people who come to help. Every day, the tree sees the footprints, big and small, of those who come to offer relief. The tree still has a burden but it chooses to focus on the footprints because they are what truly matter. I just wanted to say thank you to all the footprints I am blessed to see every day; you warm my heart with your generosity and fill my soul with hope and joy. Big and small, I see nothing but footprints everywhere I look and I am very thankful. Have a safe and very Merry Christmas everyone!

May we all be the footprints showing our help for others and offering relief, but the tree also. Stong and tall, but able to handle our burdens and accept the help of those around us.

Christmas Spirit All Year

Trite? Yes. Well, maybe a little. We hear it this time of year, every year. Actually, we hear it about a month ago every year. I am writing this on New Year's Eve at 9pm. Christmas Eve was a week ago and we were in full Christmas Spirit eating chilled plum soup, roasted fruit salad, potato-chestnut latkes with onion compote, and salmon wellington with dilled cream sauce. They day itself came and went six days ago just like it does every year. And just like every year, my wife and I got into our post-Christmas affective disorder or "After Christmas Blues".

The same thing happened last year. And the year before. And the year before. I generally continue to listen to Christmas music until about February 1st, clinging onto the Spirit as long as I can. Last year I decided to actually do it. I did stop the music about that time, but I did keep the Christmas Spirit all year. Really. I really did. And, it was the year I changed the most ever in my life.

2011 was a year I looked at people as the sons and daughters of other people and the way I would want my own children to be viewed. I increased patience. I lowered my annoyance meter. I drove slower. I listened to more uplifting music. I cried more. I read more classical and uplifting literature. I attended more religious services. I got closer to my wife. I viewed less media. I kept 4 of 7 new years resolutions. I judged les--yes, even in my mind. My speach became kinder, and cleaner. I read more in the scriptures. I gave up old, bad habits. My discussions with my wife became more open and honest. And, I just became a nicer, better, funner person.

I didn't record anything of this journey in 2011. I will do so for 2012. I've already decided that one of my resolutions is to document my life more. That includes in my personal journal as well as here with thoughts throughout the year on how to keep the Christmas Spirit going even while you're in your garden picking tomatoes.

As was written by my favorite author in my favorite novel, "I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all year, I will live in the past, present and future, the spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach."