The winter holiday spirit is infiltrating the culture around me. Stores have holiday exhibits, radios play holiday music, people are planning holiday parties and some have started hanging decorations in and around their homes.
Some of the holiday cheer has struck me as outdated and not relevant to today's world--a world of great diversity, yet I love the way that the lights and celebrations warm up the winter months and bring an element of creativity, surprise, spirituality and care for one another.
As I think about what's important to me during the holidays, I'm focused on the following activies.
Family gatherings
We'll host and attend a small number of family gatherings with those we love the most. I'd like to have even more gatherings, but we're still somewhat cautious about COVID spread even though we're highly vaccinated. Our family members gathered recently without any spread, so I'm cofident that we can have healthy family events.
Gifts
I enjoy buying and making small gifts for those I love and care about. I'll engage in a number of gift-making and shopping events to find these small representations of my care and love.
Experiences
More than objects, our holiday gifts will include a number of shared experiences including dinners out, city explorations and travel in the year ahead. These experiences create warmth and memories that boost our family/friend bonding and care for one another.
Decorations
After Thanksgiving, we'll take out the decorations and place them around the house. Many of the decorations we've collected bring back memories of holidays past.
Contribution
We'll make contributions to a few people/places we deeply support.
Simple, loving
The main focus of the holidays this year will be simple and loving. Onward.