I guess all of us have recovered by now from the hustle and bustle surrounding Thanksgiving. I don’t know about you, but I love the idea of Thanksgiving and getting together with friends and loved ones around a groaning board of delicious foods. Of course, these days where you hear constantly about the obesity problem in the U.S. it makes it difficult to sit and pack in all those calories without feeling guilty! But forget it, that holiday is now a thing of the past and regardless of how you indulged yourself, it is over! But now we have Christmas, which is my favorite holiday of all.

You know why I love Christmas? It isn’t the thought of anticipated gifts or any such thing, nope, it is the just the anticipation. I love the decorations, regardless of how much or how many. And I absolutely love hearing the carols, whether they are old or new. On the first of December I always turn on the radio and listen to every single carol that is played. And as I have mentioned before, I feel very sorry that our children and young people are no longer able to celebrate this holiday any more. I know that there are now many people of different religions in our communities and schools and I have absolutely no problem with celebrating their holidays and customs.

But it would seem that our country, that was founded on Christianity, is no longer able to celebrate our religious holidays. And what makes me really wonder is how can it be that our elected officials are able to celebrate with not only decorations but all sorts of holidays celebrations that appear to be denied our kids. And I don’t know about your family and children, not one of mine can sing any of the old Carols. Of course, I am not including Rudolph, who seems to have slipped through the censors and is still sung by all. But give me a break. Christmas is still a Christian holiday and it might be a good idea to remember that once in a while. Silent Night can still bring a tear to my eye and regardless of how it is sung, it is still a wonderful song that was written to celebrate a very special occasion.

As Christmas approaches I have to tell you that I was not wrapped but ready before Thanksgiving. As you know, I have four children and eight grandchildren and I still want to include them all in my celebration. And because I don’t have the money to go out and buy whatever it is that I think that they want, I start early. In fact, I have been known to start in January! By now, I hope, I am wrapped and ready. Now I am sure that some of you are wondering why I would bother to get gifts for all those grown people, regardless of how much I love them. Well, the reason is, I do love them and want them to know that I care enough to include them in any and all of the Reiss family celebrations. And what do I want them to give me this year? I swear to you that this is true, absolutely nothing! At my age I need nothing and in fact I should be getting rid of a lot of stuff. Of course, a gift certificate for a massage, a pedicure and even to get my hair done wouldn’t take up much room!

I won’t say Merry Christmas yet, although that is what I say these days and refuse to say Happy Holidays! So, maybe next time it will be time for Merry Christmas. Try and have a wonderful time during this Holiday season. Don’t stress out and just enjoy and think how lucky we are to be able to celebrate.