The Promise of A New Year

OK....call me corny, or sentimental, or sappy or whatever. Call me eternally optimistic and horribly naive, but I always see the beginning of a New Year as a chance for new beginnings and a fresh start. To me the moments just after midnight on New Years signals the opportunity to push aside the failures and regrets of the previous year, the unfulfilled promises and the abandoned goals.

I like making New Year’s resolutions. I like stating aloud the things about myself and my life that I would like to make my years work. For me it helps to make it more real and far more likely for me to work towards. I think everyone if given the opportunity has things they would like to change, or make better. Yes I know that any day can be that day when one will finally put their mind to it and begin in earnest, but there is some sort of a grander, more romantic gesture to it when done in the spirit of the New Year.

2007 saw a great number of changes for me. Some were sad, some were very positive, but unlike some previous years at least it was a year of change. There was movement in my life...mostly in a forward direction. I feel at year’s end that I am not in the same position I was on January 1st of 2007, and for that I am glad. I saw in myself the ability to make life altering changes during this year. I also confronted beliefs about the future and my own destiny. I made new friends, I took some risks. I went out of my comfort zone, and I didn’t melt. I hope that 2008 will see these things continue.

My wish for everyone that may read this blog is that in your own life, you make 2008 a year of wonderful discoveries about yourself, about the possibilities that exist around you, and that it is a year of moments that will make memories long after 2008.

Happy New Year

Christmas 2007

Christmas Day has come and gone once again, but the holiday season is still moving forward with a new year now looming on the horizon. As I do every year, I stressed incredibly in the weeks leading up to Christmas....wanting everything to be "right". So many things I want to see and do during this short holiday season as well, I am lucky to make it to one of them. But all of the running around and self induced stress worked out and it was a very nice Christmas.

Perhaps my favorite parts of this particular holiday were the special moments of magic that made their way into my world from friends and family alike. The unexpected Christmas card from someone long absent, the Christmas Day phone calls from friends and family, the unexpected generosity of friends going out of their ways to make me smile with gifts specially created for me lovingly made with time and effort. A very nice couple of days spent with my mom, just enjoying her company and sharing the season together. All and all, A Christmas that made me truly feel the spirit of the season, I am a lucky man for having the luxury of loving family and friends around me.

I hope everyone had a nice Holiday celebration and was surrounded by friends and family.

My Own Poseidon Adventure

Charles Minnegrode introduced the custom of decorating trees in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1842.
By 1850, the Christmas tree had become fashionable in the eastern states. Until this time, it had been considered a quaint foreign custom.

Mark Carr brought trees from the Catskills to the streets of New York in 1851, and opened the first retail Christmas tree lot in the United States.

Franklin Pierce was the first president to introduce the Christmas tree to the White House in 1856 for a group of Washington Sunday School children. The first national Christmas Tree was lighted in the year 1923 on the White House lawn by President Calvin Coolidge.

Over the course of the past week I have decorated three separate Christmas Trees. I believe there is nothing quite as festive as trimming the tree to get one in the holiday mood. Two of the three trees were artificial, but one came right from the lot, freshly cut and full of that wonderful smell that fills the house with the fragrance of pine.

Like people, each tree has its own unique personality, even year to year with the same decorations, each tree takes on a look of it’s own. Some years I must admit..perhaps more effort was spent on design and overall look, but somehow they all looked good in the end as Christmas trees just do.

The third and last of the trees I decorated was my own tree. Although a lot more effort and time, having a real tree is still my preference. This years search went remarkably well. My final choice was the second tree I looked at. It was the right size, a good shape, and although tempted to keep looking, I finally realized..hey I like this one...and so I went with it.

Getting it home, and getting it set up...again easy. I have had trees in the past that were lopsided, not cut straight, or that had really low branches that made it hard to access for water, etc. But this tree was good in all those respects, and in no time it was up and ready to decorate. It is a noble fir, and the lights and decorations went on very easily. I used practically every ornament I had and after the application of the glass garland, the tree ( in my humble opinion) was truly practically perfect. I even went so far as to say aloud "I should take a picture of this tree". Less than a minute after that while sitting looking upon this beautiful reminder of the holiday season that I watched it slowly fall forward onto the ground, fully decorated, lights on and I felt much like Shelley Winters and Jack Albertson as a member of the S.S. Poseidon.

Like the movie, water went everywhere, for I had filled the tree stand to the very top. As far as I can figure, the tree was so fresh that when the water filled up the stand, the bolts going into the tree slipped out of place, and the tree fell forward out of the stand onto the carpet. I sat still completely horrified and unable to react. It was only the rushing sound of the water pouring onto the carpet that I sprang into action.

The tree was wrestled back into the stand, the bolts tightened completely into the tree. Amazingly, I only lost one ornament. But the tree was a wreck. I still haven’t mustered up the will to fix it, now 4 days later, but I will. I hope that the 4th tree that I decorate this year will turnout like the others.

Countdown to Christmas

My parents like most parents out there I’m sure hoped that they would raise their children with at least some of the principles and ethics that they might want to pass on to them. I am sure many just hope that they will grow up to be upright citizens and move out of the house at the proper age. Despite the usual ups and downs of growing up, I have to admit I was incredibly lucky to have grown up with so many wonderful memories and traditions and experiences that truly did shape the man I turned out to be.

At this time of the year I begin to get anxious...the Autumn starts an exciting time of the year for me and I have to wonder once again what makes Christmas "the most wonderful time of the year." As the days get shorter and more stressful, I find myself joining the millions of people worldwide who love Christmas and harken to that "Christmas spirit." But what is it about Christmas that makes it so special? A simple string of white lights wrapped around a lamppost is all it takes for me to be overcome by happy feelings and powerful associations.

I've often thought that it's the traditions that come along with Christmas that make it so special. I feel safe and happy when I'm doing something familiar -- something I've known since I was a little boy. Many of these traditions have morphed over the years - grown up or changed with the times, but I have such crystal clear memories of many of the traditions started from my grandparents and then down to my parents to myself; everything about Christmas in my family has some tradition with it. Like the Advent Calendar.

How excited I would become as a child when my grandfather would bring over the Advent calendar for me. As December 1st approached I could barely wait until I got to open that first window to see my first image of the season. Every year the calendar was different, usually imported from Germany or Scandinavia they became a beautiful and integral part of my countdown to Christmas.

This year I was surprised by the gift of my own permanent Advent Calendar. I still felt the same child like joy and anticipation as I looked forward to each morning and the opportunity to count my way down to Christmas Day. It was the perfect gift, the best possible reminder for me of the magic of the season. For me it brings back all the wonder and the anticipation of those Christmas’ growing up.

I’m not sure what it is about this time of year. Perhaps it's the excuse Christmas gives us to be friendly, and to expect friendliness in return. People are too busy or too stressed to be nice all year long, but Christmas has managed to retain some of its goodwill message. Perhaps it is the reminders of our own childhood memories and the joy that they brought us that makes us smile a bit more at this festive time of the year. For me though this holiday season has started off with a most thoughtful and generous gift from the heart that makes me smile a little bigger and makes this years countdown to Christmas even better.