By now most have had the opportunity to evaluate their Christmas. Good. Bad. Indifferent. Lonely. Emotional.  Those are the days between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Days of reflection both backwards and forwards. 

My college age grandson used to say, whenever you asked him how things were going, “Solid.” Since I’m 73 I confess to not really using that term. I knew what it meant because of the context. But use it? What am I…16 & 17 all over again? 🙂  No. I remember a 30+ year old neighbor who went all gaga over The New Kids on the Block. “For crying out loud,” I wanted to say. “You are over 30 years old with a husband and two children. Act your age.”  Of course, I guess I can’t say much. We have grandmas and some football player going all gaga over someone named Taylor Swift. (For the life of me I still can’t figure that one out). Anyway…we ended up going to Ohio on Wednesday and returning Friday after spending Christmas with our Ohio family. It was my first time staying in an Airbnb and I gotta admit: it was nicer than staying in a sterile hotel room. There was plenty of room to spread out; a super huge kitchen which allowed Janna to cook sausage gravy and biscuits (which has been our go to meal for Christmas for ages. Instead of Jo cooking though, Janna has taken over that chore); and 4 bedrooms, of which we only needed 3.  If I had not received any presents (which is what I ask for every year), my life would have been complete just being with my family. We came home to continued work on our shower (there was more damage and consequent mold than originally thought), and he will return today to finish up some wiring. That’s what you get when you have an older home, built before the turn of the century (this one!). The house is easily 40-50 years old so you can imagine the wiring. Hopefully, that will be done today. 

Honestly, I seldom ever suffer from “the downs.” God has blessed me with the ability to deal with defeat or discouragement quickly, learn from it, and move on. After losing my job, my first concern was not, “Where am I going to go?” but the need to take care of my family. After going to Alaska in 2019 I lived on a high for weeks. After visiting my now deceased friend in Arizona in February of ’24, I was so thrilled to have spent time with him, I lived on a high, until his devastating diagnosis of a glioblastoma. The time between Christmas and New Years is not a time for being down, but a time for looking ahead.  Maybe I don’t suffer from the after-Christmas blues because I have learned that God is all I need. I can celebrate Christmas all year ’round and don’t need a tree and lights. 

After all…love, joy, and peace never go out of style. Spread it.