A Preview of my NON-letter Christmas Letter

I decided this year to NOT write a Christmas letter. I think they can sound so "Wow...look at me!" or "Wow...my year stunk it up...don't you feel sorry for me?" So I decided to do a NON-letter. Let me know what you think.

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world,
and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. Norman Vincent Peale

BAH HUMBUG to letter writing this year.

I want to snuggle my ever-growing babies in their beds at dawn. I want to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas while we munch on “real” popcorn. I want to remember that freezing, foggy night with my mom, getting zapped time and time again by the huge vintage lights we were putting out when I was just a teen. I want to lie under the tree with the kids and pretend we are Chip and Dale. I want to make cookies from scratch and eat the dough until we are sick. I want to wrap presents with Sadie using real ribbons. I want to clean my house to the sounds of Burl Ives’ “Holly, Jolly Christmas.” I want to pretend to not be able to find the pickle ornament when Jacob hides it in the boughs. I want to relive the type of joy my sisters and I shared when a blizzard kept us home from Christmas Eve on the farm, and we got presents at midnight.

I want to have kitschy Christmas towels hanging from my stove handle. I want bubble baths instead of showers. I want meals from the oven instead of the microwave. I want to read the Christmas story to my children and remind them of the incredible blessing of that gift of long ago. I want to watch them make a gingerbread house and celebrate their use of candy and frosting in unusual architectural ways. I want to watch Jacob play with the nativity scene as he changes, again, where Sadie puts the angel. I want to remember how my mom would tie up the branches of every real tree we ever had, so it would look perfect when we put on the ornaments. I want to hug my dad and remember the Christmas Eve when his Santa belly rivaled my own when Sadie was just three days away from her arrival in this world.

I want to drink hot cocoa from the little Santa cups I got from Goodwill. I want to sleep in a bed with sheets that smell like evergreen and cinnamon. I want to make a snowman with that first perfect snow. I want to hang ornaments with the kids and not care if we break one or if they are all on the bottom three feet of the tree. I want to relive the joy of filling stockings in the dark stillness of the house on Christmas Eve. I want to kiss my Grinch under the mistletoe.

I want to hear Sadie plunk out “Joy to the World” on a slightly out of tune piano that was saved from an abandoned farm house. I want to watch A Christmas Story on TBS…over and over and over again. I want to take pictures and actually print them off. I want to deliver baskets to my neighbors and see them smile because we remembered them. I want to call my friends rather than text or email them. I want to ride around and look at lights while eating ice cream. I want to drink real Coke and eat fudge until my teeth are gritty with sugar. I want to stay up too late decorating things nobody else will even see. I want to watch It’s a Wonderful Life for the umpteenth time and still cry when George finally comes home.

I want most of all for you to have a softer and more beautiful Christmas, filling your heart instead of filling your days. Enjoy the season of Christ’s birth, dear friends. May your days be merry and BRIGHT!

With much love,

Trish
for the Sandbultes