By MILITARY PRESS on December 14, 2011 at 9:37 am
By Crystal Arriaga
Sad to say but some Americans may have forgotten the meaning of Christmas. What I mean is that by Thanksgiving, some have been camping out for a week in order to get the latest deal on the newest gadget or toy.
For quite a few of us this is typically our favorite time of year. We love picking out that perfect tree to decorate, seeing twinkling lights for the first time of the year, watching bundled up smiling children ice skate and hearing Frank Sinatra gently soothe our hearts with the sounds of the classic Christmas tunes. The theme of the end of the year should be friends, family, your own personal traditions and ceremonies and just being together to eat, laugh, reminisce and enjoy each other’s company. No batteries should be required.
If they must, let the children YouTube Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and maybe even Elvis to teach them a bit of classics. Watch “A Christmas Story” (and let the kids see how punishments used to be — they’ll never look at soap the same again), “National Lampoon’s: Christmas Vacation” and meet the Griswolds (which maybe A LOT like your in-laws), and they’ll learn about helping others and doing the right thing in “White Christmas.” Maybe take a train like in “White Christmas,” bundle up the kids like Randy, teach your kids the “Sisters” routine and let them act it out, help a veteran, go caroling, hold the neighbor’s ladder while he puts his lights up or take the kids to cut down your own tree. And when they go to lick that soap — because we all know the kids will try it after watching Ralphie do it — take a picture!
We’ve all been guilty of being a Grinch when things don’t go our way during the holidays but try to remember that even though your husband may be driving you insane and you’re contemplating many ways to retaliate, not everyone will get to be with their loved ones this time of. Deployed or not, things can and will go wrong but the art of managing kinks is to just take that deep breath. Stuff the undone bird back into the oven for another 30 minutes while trying to juggle reheating everything, push the jumping dogs off the countertops while a starving ravenous group of in-laws sits at the table starting a slow bang of forks and knives against your table in protest of your cooking skills. Breathe when you’re at one end of the table and there’s an empty seat at the other. Not everything is as perfect as in the scenes of the classic Christmas movies (especially not the Griswold’s) even though we’d like it to be. Breathe. Whatever your story is this year make it one for all to remember!
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