by Melissa Brown

Created on: December 09, 2008   Last Updated: December 23, 2008

The spirituality of Christmas is not lost for all of us. Maybe it's diminished a bit, but it's certainly there somewhere. I believe we just need to stop and dig a little further into our hearts instead of our pockets. You will find spirituality where it been buried among the commercialism and political correctness.

Our children are grown and gone, but I still get excited about Christmas. All of the grandchildren are far away, but I still get excited about Christmas. I am 61 years old, I live with The Grinch, but I still get excited about Christmas. No matter what we say or do, it shows up every year. The music and decorations start appearing in the stores just after midnight the day after Thanksgiving, and in many places sooner than that. There's just no getting around it. To tell you the truth, I could do with out the whole Black Friday thing, even though it officially ushers in the Christmas sales. I just don't go out on that day. If you go out on that day, you are literally taking your life in your hands. It's just not right.

I don't think there was a time when I really dreaded Christmas. I still get excited. Left to my own resources, I'll go out shopping a little at a time. Every time I see someone with a scowl or frown, I just smile at them. And, every time I've done that, I get a smile back. It's uncanny every time! Think about it. Maybe just a smile turned someone's lousy day around. I am a people watcher, and I swear, that I can almost hear them thinking, wondering and concentrating; the anxsiety, the worry, the hurry, the concentration and on occassion, the spirit of Christmas is on someone's face.

Getting ready for Christmas is never easy. I'm exhausted from trying to put up the pre-lit tree we bought last year. The lights didn't work last year, so I called to see if they would let me go exchange the tree for another. Noooooo, they would not. However, if I could tell them what string on the tree was not working, they would send me a new strand. So I crawled around under the tree to read the tiny printed matter attached to the limbs where the lights did not work. I was on the phone for 30 minutes under the tree trying to read the little tags.

At LAST! I found the right set and read the little tag off to the girl on the other end of the phone line. She said they would rush our new lights out, and all I'd have to do would be remove the old string of lights, and put on the new. I could get out from under the tree and get on with Christmas. Uhh ... no, I couldn't.

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