As we near Christmas, I’ve been thinking a lot about it, what it means, how we celebrate it, and Christmas past. My husband does a blog too and I may steal a couple of his thoughts along the way.
Over the years with all PC, we are not suppose to say Merry Christmas, it suppose to be Happy Holidays so no one is offended. I will always say Merry Christmas. The thing is I am not offended if someone says, happy holidays, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa or whatever that person may celebrate. I does make me feel sad that they are missing the true meaning and reason for Christmas. I recently saw a post that said we don’t need 5 stars, we only needed that 1 star. Christmas is about presence not presents.
Over the years of working in health care I have missed many Christmas with my family. When I worked nights it wasn’t so bad. I would work my night shift and stay up all day to celebrate with the family and then just back to work exhausted but it was worth it. When I was young and before I had kids I would offer to work the holidays so the others nurses with kids could be off to have that precious family time. When the time came when I had kids too bad that no-one reciprocated for me. I remember after I moved to CO and was in management a nurse told me if she didn’t get Christmas off she would quit. So I worked her shift on Christmas so she could spend the day with her dad. Guess what happened, she quit anyway. In LTC as mangers we would take turns being on call for the holidays. Which meant if someone called in and you couldn’t get shift covered, you would have to go work the shift. Nothing spoils your holiday plans than having that on call phone ringing at 6:30 am to to be told someone didn’t show up for their shift. So off you go to work, cuz you are never going to get a nurse to Christmas day at the last minute. Most of the time my family tried to understand.
I did have some very enjoyable Christmases when working. We would do pot lucks or order food in just to make the day more fun. Working in LTC could be sad over the holidays, because so many people did not have anyone come see them. It just meant we got to be their families. It was so great to see their faces light up when Santa would come or when carolers would come singing.
Christmas is not the same as it used to be. It has become so commercialized. Sure I like to get presents, who doesn’t but even more I enjoy giving to people and spending time with family. Over this past year it has taught me to suck up all the family time you can, because you just never know how rapidly things can change.
So as we get ready to celebrate please remember to be present as much as possible for family, friends, and our nation. Oh, I will still give presents but along with those presents comes the real reason I celebrate Christmas. Please as you celebrate keep your heart full of love for our savior.