Phragments from Phyllis for Dec. 25, 2008

We are trying to make new traditions at our house.

The only problem with adult children is that their lives change and expand to include new family members (with engagement and marriage) and then, suddenly, you don't get to have them all the time for every holiday.

This year may be the last year of a relatively "traditional" Christmas celebration with all three of my children at home -- Add into the mix the fact that Cade is there and we are having an excellent Christmas.

We already know that next year Liz will be home for Christmas but won't be home for Thanksgiving. (Her fiance's family gets together on Thanksgiving one year and Christmas the next and 2009 happens to be a Thanksgiving year for them -- better for me. It gives me a year to get used to the idea of not having her here on Christmas Day.)

And by next year, much as I don't want to think about it, it would not surprise me if Cat and Scott decided they'd rather have Christmas at home with Cade and then come our way -- No more waking up with children in the house.

So for now, we're focusing on this year. With two weddings looming in 2009, we all agreed to make it a lean Christmas. I'm sure my husband is already saying the packages under the Christmas tree don't look all that "lean" to him; however, I went for lots of fun little things rather than one huge item with more little items this year --except, of course, where Cade is concerned. We can all focus on the baby's Christmas and enjoy it more than the usual gift exchange among ourselves.

Only a week ago, I had done no shopping. Time was when I would have had almost all of it done by the end of Thanksgiving weekend. So it was fortuitous that my friend Susan flew in from the Dominican Republic last Thursday morning ready to shop til she dropped. We met in Greenville and shopped non-stop beginning Thursday night through Saturday afternoon. I must say, it was wonderful to be back with my friend. I have gone through some level of withdrawal where shopping is concerned without her. Where I used to spend nearly every Saturday doing some shopping with Susan, lately I have done very little. Perhaps the best part of the weekend was finding that even after four months' separation, Susan and I fell right into step as though there had been no time between our last visit with one another. I had worried about that, but it was so comfortable and so familiar and so nice to see that she's doing well -- despite a tumble down a flight of concrete steps which resulted in breaking both bones in her right arm above the wrist and a subsequent close encounter of the stitching kind with a ceiling fan (15 stitches). She looks great and she's happy with the change to a third-world country. "It's not for everyone," she admitted, "but I love it." I will see Susan again at the end of the week and she's here through Jan. 11, so I'll be trying to get in some companion shopping.

Meanwhile, I am savoring every moment with my friend, with my children and with my grandson.

Christmas is definitely more about family and less about gifts, more about love and giving in the true spirit of God's gift to us.

I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas.

And in the spirit of Sam Woodring, I send this traditional greeting:

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