Christmas Eve Memory....

Awesome bloggin' bud Joe Barone had brought up the topic of Christmas Memories awhile back, sharing some of his own, and had also asked for any memories that others had of Christmas to be shared.

I have many special memories. We all do. Some are very good ones, while others are heartbrakingly painful to even dare to venture in remembrance. Christmas is a good time for all these memories to be dug up and unburied, if for nothing else than the sake of the unevitable. Many of us walk around in a clouded fog of emotion or lack thereof, wondering why. We ask ourselves what could it be, dragging our spirits up, down, and around in such a way that one cannot describe.

Sometimes our minds, our inner conscience, rather, throws out a nibble here and there of an old festering memory. It is solely up to us whether or not we choose to relive those moments and have a change of heart about a certain situation, or continue to remain in our fragile child-like state of existence in that moment.

We choose whether or not to have 2 points of view.

Or just none at all, tossing it back into a fragmented patch of existence, as it awaits it's next opportunity to unfold.

I have come to live on a middle grounds when it comes to the trials and tribulations and folly that is life. It's a hard ground to stand, and I lose many that are faint of heart, but for the ones whom stand boldly, unafraid to step into my circle long enough to catch light of my ridiculous riddle-me's, I bid you a thank you. For your patience with my nonsensical ways, which are quite unreliable at times, but always I'm a devout at "heart".

I have a "Good Christmas Memory" to share with the group. One that doesn't end in tears or question marks that get you up in the morning asking one's self if it was really worth it to be alive for yet another day. I shared this with Joe. He's got a good heart, and I look forward to reading his book, A Body in the Record Room, for it seems to play between these 2 earthly ideals incessantly.


One year, my last year actually, before moving out and starting a family of my own, my brothers and I had been working on this hellaciously evil 5000 piece puzzle, and my mom had joined in at the last minute and we were finally narrowing it down to the last 50 pieces or so. We always celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve instead, so I got the idea of hiding the last puzzle piece.

My mind worked a bit further in devising something more dramatic, so I ran upstairs, grabbed a pair of scissors, some scotch tape and a roll of wrapping paper. I then went to work in a giggled frenzy, hardly being able to anticipate the end result of this sanity, as I could hear my 3 brothers and mom scrambling to find the last piece downstairs.

The ideal of completely finishing that ridiculous puzzle had been given up on after a 2 hour hunt for the thing. (I even pretended to look for it and get annoyed when nobody could find it, just to add flavor to the final moment.)

You can only imagine the insane bursts of giggles and laughter as my mom and 3 brothers opened the last present that Christmas Eve, tucked under Christmas Tree rug, in a tiny box.

It brought more joy, laughter and smiles than ANY material thing could.

Happy Holidays to Every Last One of You