Christmas Greetings

Several years after moving into our current house, we received a three-page Christmas letter from a Vermont family. We learned via this letter that she still had her studio, he planned on retiring from his practice in five more years, and the children were thriving. We had no idea who these people were, but read their letter to a series of holiday dinner guests.

In today's local paper, there was an article entitled, "Cheer Up. Christmas has been out of control for centuries." Embedded in the article was the following quote: "There are worlds of money wasted, at this time of year, in getting things that nobody wants, and nobody cares for after they are got." It was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1850. The Financial Page of this week's New Yorker also addresses the trials and tribulations of Christmas with this quote, from the New York Tribune in 1894: "As soon as the Thanksgiving turkey is eaten, the great question of buying Christmas presents begins to take the terrifying shape it has come to assume in recent years." According to researchers, gift cards alone during the holiday season represent a $25-billion dollar expenditure, and the average American spends $1000 each holiday season on gifts. It occurs to me that had we all, we friends and family, pooled our Christmas money we might have underwritten college tuition for the future curer of cancer, or fed a Somalian village for a week, or found homes for an entire county pound full of animals. Perhaps next year........

This evening on Noble Avenue will be just like every other Christmas Eve. Residents will come out en masse to wish each other a Merry Christmas as they light their luminaria, a longstanding tradition in this neighborhood. It will be the last time many of us see each other until Spring as we bunker in for the winter, save we intrepid dog-walkers. For me, this will be the winter I train to walk the St. Louis Marathon. I must be out of my mind.

Jim and I have spent our pre-Christmas week at the Corkscrew Wine Emporium, he helping Christmas shoppers select just the right wine for Aunt Minerva, while I work like Santa's elf putting gift boxes together and wrapping gift bottles. It's not exactly food baskets for the poor, but it feels like Christmas. The dogs' stockings are hung, but that's about it for Christmas decorations at home, due to a week-long trip to Florida from which we returned on the 19th. I know, I know..no one feels sorry for us, including us.

While in some ways it feels like last Christmas was barely over before this one began, in other ways this has been a very eventful year. Our neices and nephews are busily marrying and producing offspring, making us Great Aunt Linda and Great Uncle Jim. Our 9,000 miile roadtrip, with Standard Poodle Ethan in tow, was the highlight of the summer and many of you, dear friends and relatives, were a part of it! You can read about it at .http://roadtripblog-writingirl.blogspot.com/, a blog that I set up so that our friends and families could experience the trip with us vicariously.

Other hightlights included, for me, the Iowa Writers Festival, which I attended for the second year in a row with my adventurous friend Kibbur, taking a course on travel writing. While I have not yet submitted anything for publication, I do have a collection of essays put together on yet another blog, which you can access at http://lindas-essays.blogspot.com/


And for both of us, the addition of Izzie, our new puppy, to the household, has made for some lively times. Nearly seven months old, she keeps us -- and the cat-- very busy.

Jim continues to golf in the summer and to work at the Corkscrew, expanding his wine knowledge. I have told him he can never, ever quit this job, even if I have to roll him in on a stretcher. We have now developed palates that we cannot possibly satisfy without our generous employee discount.

And so, friends, and family, we have again gone into and back out of the darkest and shortest day of a year, and found ourselves happy and healthy and the recipients of many, many good things. This year, as always, we wish you health and happiness, and dare we wish for peace in the world and an end to the Christmas Insanity????


Happy New Year from Linda, Jim, Ethan, Izzie, and Oliver.