The holidays have always been a great time for me, and for my family.\u00a0 With Christmas coming up, I find myself anxiously awaiting another time like yesterday, except that maybe this time, I’ll be able to control my spontaneous urge to eat myself into a food coma.<\/p>\n
Thanksgiving itself has always been just a nice get-together with plenty of grub.\u00a0 Things have changed a few times over the years.\u00a0 We add to the family, and sometimes, the branches of the family tree grow too big to support, and they fall off, sprouting new trees to cultivate.<\/p>\n
Christmas, on the other hand, has stayed pretty much the same.\u00a0 There have been some fairly big changes to the formula (my father passed away several years ago), but we try to keep everything consistent.\u00a0 We still have stockings as part of our presents (even though my brother and I are in our twenties now).\u00a0 The food is the same, if not even better.\u00a0 The presents, while not as plentiful now that we’re grown adults, are still just as meaningful.<\/p>\n
When I was young, these holidays seemed so much bigger.\u00a0 When you’re a small child, things tend to look bigger by comparison, but the holiday itself – as an idea – just seemed so much grander in scale.\u00a0 It meant more to our family than a Black Friday sale.\u00a0 A crazy uncle would love to air grievances about the government, but it was funny how eloquently he put it.\u00a0 Going to sleep early to wake up at the crack of dawn was a given thought, and probably one of the reasons I wake up so early every day.\u00a0 Our dad would set up the camera, and watch us open presents – I still need to find a way to convert those old tapes into something tangible by today’s standards.<\/p>\n
Not all of these things have changed, but nothing really ever stays the same either.\u00a0 We grow older, we grow wiser, we grow children and families of our own.\u00a0 As that happens, and you start to cultivate that new beginning, I feel like that youth ultimately comes back to us.<\/p>\n
Unrelated: My new book came out earlier this month.\u00a0 Check it out if you are interested.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0060O7IXW<\/a><\/p>\n Of course, the old book is still chugging along as well: http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0052TSJQ6<\/a>\u00a0 It’s actually been in Amazon’s Best Seller’s for the past two weeks for its genre.\u00a0 Huge satisfaction seeing that!<\/p>\n