I love Christmas. The season seems to bring out the best in just about everyone, from friends and acquaintances ready with friendly greetings and holiday wishes, to strangers who wish you the best of the season while shopping in stores or passing on a busy street.

My first Christmas celebration with my wife still ranks as one of our best. She was three weeks away from giving birth to our first child, a son, so we limited the length of visits with each other’s family and spent most of that Christmas Day at home together.

Succeeding holidays involved additional children, veritable mountains of presents and, of course, the obligatory Christmas feast. Although my memories of specific days have faded, the one thing that stands out for each, wherever we were, was the blessing of spending the holiday with the people I love most in this world.

Time changes everything, of course, and our family was not immune. My eldest son married, as did my youngest daughter, leaving us with two children at home. That is not to say we did not still gather for the customary gift openings and eating until buttons threatened to pop, but a tiny bit of the magic vanished, never to be seen again.

The blessings of grandchildren added a special appreciation for Christmas, in a different way. Nothing compares to first Christmas celebrations with your children’s children, because the unspoken rule is to indulge in spoiling the little tykes, then sending them home for their parents to deal with. I must admit, my role as a grandparent is almost as enjoyable as the experience of raising my own children.

I have seen and gone through a number of changes since those halcyon days of my early marriage. Many of them were fantastic and I look back on them with great fondness. Too many, however, will never make it onto my list of favorite things (a song that, in my humble opinion, is NOT in any way, shape, or form a Christmas carol, but I digress).

Christmas of 2014 was a significant departure for us and I have not yet decided if it makes the top ten or bottom twenty of my best Christmas list. We had moved to Hawaii and I absolutely loved the warm weather, which did nothing to dampen islander’s seasonal cheer. We saw houses decked out in lights, and seemed to hear carolers everywhere we went, but for the first time since the birth of our son, we had no family to observe the day with, so Christmas that year was a little depressing.

Since moving back to Canada, I have tried to make it up to my wife, who found no joy in that island holiday at all. I am the one who hauls out the trees, one seven footer for the living room and a miniature tree no taller than three feet for my desk. My wife gripes and grouses about my Christmas decorating, but eventually she comes to appreciate my efforts. A bit. But not too much. There’s no need to overdo it, you know.

This year finds us living six hours from our children and financially confined to our house. Medical issues and the costs associated with them mean we can’t afford the trip to see them, as multiple drives three hours in the opposite direction will take a bite out of our budget. I would much rather see my children and grandchildren, but the choice is not entirely mine, as these trips are for both of us to see specialists. As a result, I have been a touch pessimistic about our Christmas observance this year.

The Glimmer of Gold?

So where is the glimmer of gold in my rant? Well, today I started a video call with my eldest daughter, just because I needed to hear her voice and talk to her dog, a border collie who comes running when she hears my voice. She then proceeds to hog the screen so she can see my face. I get a kick out of the scene, which is repeated every time we do this.

In the course of our conversation, she informed me of her plans to come spend the holiday with my wife and me. The news lifted my spirits immediately, but she wasn’t finished, as our other daughter is planning on coming with her! Whether they make the trip will depend entirely on the weather, but the expectation will keep me happy the entire month.

In closing, I want to say that I hope Christmas this year is a delight and one to remember. And, because I am suddenly finding the spirit of the season, I want to wish everyone an admittedly very early Merry Christmas.