Think Write Thursday - Holiday Spirit

For Think Write Thursday this week, Carole and Kat would like us to write about holiday spirit. What does it mean to have holiday spirit? Do I feel like I have it this year, and why or why not? Discuss :-) I've mulled this over for much of the week, and may finally have a few answers.

For 18 years of my adult life, Christmas meant that I had to work. I was a medical technologist in hospital hematology labs, and because hospitals never close, labs don't either. In the beginning I had to work because my seniority was way down at the bottom, but later when I became the supervisor, I worked because I chose to. I still got to celebrate with family and friends, it was just later (sometimes in June, but better late than never!). By volunteering and putting myself on the schedule, it made a big difference to someone with lower seniority who might have had to work. For many years, that provided me with a wonderfully quiet feeling of holiday spirit - giving of myself to make someone happy.

Years passed, I began to work part-time doing lab work for oncologists who were closed on Christmas, and I had two sons. Celebrating Christmas with my boys filled me with holiday spirit - creating the fun, joy, anticipation, and magic of the season is easy and comes naturally with children.

Now the boys are grown, and because of work and distance, neither one can be home for Christmas this year. Initially, this made me very sad, but while striving to be the highly reasonable person I want to be, I could see it was for the best, and need not diminish the holidays. I won't be moving the fire screen to make sure Santa can get down the chimney, eating half a carrot and claiming the reindeer did it, or making Santa's boot prints by the fireplace to delight the boys, but I am beginning to embrace the changing of traditions. This will be our first year for an artificial tree, the first time that all the gifts have had to be carefully planned and mailed early to make it to CO and TX on time, the first year that I will be cooking one small prime rib roast instead of two huge ones.

But that's okay and the universe is unfolding as it should. I think I can honestly say that yes, I do feel like I have holiday spirit this year. I've knit gifts for both of the boys that I hope they'll like and use, and I'm knitting dishcloths for three different family members that requested them (even though the worsted cotton is not my favorite). I'm shopping for items that are needed at the senior center and will drop them off this afternoon; I'm baking cookies and leaving them on my neighbors' porches. I used to think that having holiday spirit meant that I was in a perpetual good mood and celebrating in a spectacular, over-the-top way, but that has really never described me. I'm simply enjoying knitting with love and peace, connecting with people by phone, email, or video chatting if it can't be in person, recognizing and appreciating those small, quiet moments of love and joy, and trying to give of myself to make others happy. Those things feel like Christmas spirit to me.

Read other Think ... Write ... Thursday! posts here, and sign up for Carole and Kat's great idea here.