Merry Christmas, everyone!

For those of you who observe Christmas.  Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I hope that you have a good day.  For many of us, it's no easy thing.  First off, the pressure to have a "perfect" family holiday is immense.  The Christmas movies, the commercials, what you imagine everyone else is doing...  the influences are everywhere.  Try to break free of those images and stereotypes.  Your family might suck.  You may not have much family, or may not have one at all.  You may not have anywhere at all to go on Christmas Day.  I've been there.  The best thing I learned was that I could have a nice Christmas Day all by myself.  I spent one Christmas alone, walking on the beach along the Pacific ocean.  It was a gray day, and chilly on the beach, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I grew up in a poor blue-collar family and never, EVER would have imagined that one Christmas I'd be living in Southern California by the beach.  (If only that reality could have lasted, but that's another story.)

This year I'm experiencing another difficult kind of Christmas - my first since my father died from cancer a few months ago.  I am fortunate, somewhat, that we lived a few hundred miles apart, so I didn't see him every Christmas. At least there wasn't an every year routine that will be different this year.  But no matter where I was living, there was always at the least a card in the mail with some money or a gift card, and a Christmas Day phone call.  And there was always the knowledge that he was there.  Anytime I wanted to talk, I could.  And many years we were together for Christmas.  So this year, there's nothing.  No card, no call, just an empty hole where I used to have a father.  I've been trying not to think of it too much, and I've been doing good most days.  Focusing on the things that I like to do does help.
I hope all of you are having or have had a good day.  If you happen to be having one of those not-so-good Holidays, remember that you're not alone, and that it will get easier, and things always change.
Donna