Almost Skipping Christmas

I could hardly believe it when I opened my calendar today to realize that next week is Christmas.

We don't have a tree up yet, well, that's not too bad, our tradition has become to get it the day before the day before.

Gray Thursday and Black Friday were met with protest from our family, from me in particular, and we remained at home snuggled up with lattes and books.  We were also racing about to celebrate our youngest daughter's 10th birthday and eek out the last moments with our youngest son before depositing him on a bus back to college.

Never mind that it was only three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.

Never mind the rhetoric about big boxes, racial profiling in stores, and taking away retail workers' only day off.

Never mind the lackluster offerings and the inflated prices during the holiday season.

We just didn't go, no time, no desire, realizing we have so much we want right here.

Then there were the performances and the decade day celebration that was a week after Thanksgiving, the all important all girl sleepover that sent us to candy stores and popcorn stores.  Who has time for the mall.

One of the girls mentioned that we hadn't shopped yet.

The other kinda shrugged as if she wasn't that interested.

My husband just looked at his wallet smiling that money wasn't flying out the door.

And I thought about what I really wanted for the holidays.

Sure, we will go out, probably this weekend, since Friday is the last day of school.  Sure, they want some things like clothes and boots.  Sure, we will get a tree. We are only almost skipping Christmas, skipping the crowds at the commercial stores, skipping the push and shove, skipping the materialism, and skipping the "savings" we "earned" by "buying" that "must have" item that they are offering for our consumer focused nation.

But in all our missing it, we found something more precious, the time we've had together and the moments we've laughed with friends, the sweet sounds of music, the laughter and the joy.

Perhaps we have been too busy to go shopping to simply enjoy what this time of year is meant to bring.