Happy Holidays!

In just a few days, the feast upon which we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ will be history.

Even as a small child, I was never one who found excitement in the merchanting hoopla that accompanied Christmas and New Year.

The only hoopla that interested me was directly related to the anticipation in my gut for the traditional foods that my mother and others in the family prepared from scratch.....pierogie, Polish ham, kielbasi (smoked in the back yard over pear or some other fruit wood), poppyseed loaf, babalki, and myriad cookies filled with dates, prunes, nuts and assorted spices. And for the camaradarie that the holiday brought as we supped together to honor our Saviour.

Christmas to me and my family was all about family and church.....never, ever the rush to find the best gift for kin, sweethearts or special friends. As I've mellowed into the golden years, I am impossibly impatient with the emphasis people (or as i call them "sheep") place on material goods. A new whatchamacallit is not even in the same league as the priceless feeling of well-being that embraces me when i am with those whom i love.

I reminisce in my heart about our visits to Pennsylvania...the long white-knuckle drive on oft-icy roads with carsick critters under seats, on your lap, on the dashboard.....finally pulling up to 62 Wyoming St in Lee Park with the joy of knowing my parents and Aunt Annie were just moments away from big hugs and kisses and we were just minutes away from a stock pot full of pierogies.

It's not the same anymore, no matter if I take the lead and prepare the pierogies or poppy seed or other foods for the traditional Christmas eve supper. My mom is gone almost 18 years, my dad 6, and most of my aunts, uncles and other kin are celebrating with them in heaven. I feel their presence as they find a comfortable vantage point in various corners of my home over the holidays. I also feel them with me when i am elsewhere, but the longing to touch them at special times is overwhelmingly melancholy.

The only gift I want for Christmas is to have them near me, within my heart and mind, warming the deepest recesses of my soul.

Hristos Rozdayesha to all!