Parchment Paths

This Christmastime was wonderful and yet strange. It all seemed to happen within the last week  leading up to Christmas Eve.   Last Christmas I had more time to celebrate throughout December, going to my niece and nephew’s play, a church dinner, going Christmasy places with friends, and shopping.   This year, I had a cold the first week, worked a great deal, and found myself missing my mom very much around Thanksgiving.   I still enjoyed Christmas music, and movies but felt as though I was only working and resting. Thankfully, the cold went away and I was able to get out Christmas shopping with my dad. I had already ordered gifts online and bought some earlier, but it was nice spending time with him and helping him pick out gifts. Work was, as usual in retail during the holidays, stressful and exhausting.   At home, I wrapped presents and watched Christmas movies, and was finally starting to enjoy what I call real Christmas, which is when I’m not at work dealing with all th

Like many women this time of year, I’ve been binge watching Hallmark Christmas movies since Thanksgiving week.   While I do chuckle a bit at the predictable plots, the overly adorable kids, and the perfect holidays, I still enjoy the movies. Sometimes I sit down and just watch, sometimes they are nice background as I wrap presents or do the dishes. Despite some of the unrealistic even cliche` bits of the movies, I think there’s a lot to be learned from the stories.   Aside from caring about Christmas, people care about each other  and their community.   If only real people cared as much for each other  in real life. If only we took time to enjoy the holiday, without treating retail workers and other customers badly, without overspending for the sake of getting everyone we can think of something we think they may or may not like. While reality will never be as Christmas card perfect as the movies, we can still treat each other kindly, help each other, and yes, enjoy the holid