Celebrating

by Jeffe Kennedy

I get Christmas Day??

Somehow this sums up my whole year. So many good things have happened. So many awful things have happened. It's far from my usual Christmas that I'm sitting here, at nearly midnight, writing a blog post.

And yet...

I'm celebrating.

Had tonight gone as planned, I'd have been out late and tumbled into bed, hopefully to fling this post up in the morning. Tonight, though, my mom wasn't feeling well enough to go do what we had planned, so we stayed in and opened gifts instead.

I was glad.

Glad because ten days ago, she nearly died. She had pulmonary embolisms and the doctor said if she'd been any less healthy, she would have dropped dead. She didn't.

And so we celebrate.

I think of all the years, all the Christmases she made special. Every Christmas morning filled with magic and love came so much from her. And now, thanks to the technological miracles of clotbusters and blood thinners, she's alive and well. A little tired is just fine.

Christmas gets a bad rap, and maybe it should. For the commercialism, the tawdriness, the bottom line. But it's also about the love and togetherness. It's the bright lights and the colorful ribbons. The thoughtful gifts. I took this photo of the tree with my amazing new camera tripod from my thoughtful aunt.

I may also have a new telephoto lens that goes up to 600. For reference, my previous best lens went to 140. Oh yeah - I'm gonna be rocking this new lens from my mom and stepdad.

Most of all, though, it's planning menus with my mom. Shopping the store and making the food.

Every time together is a celebration.

As it should be.

Merry merry!