What happeed to the days before Christmas

Hi everyone. I have a big question tonight...what happened to the days before Christmas? This is a two-fold question. The first is...where did the time go? Last time I looked we had at least a month before the holiday...and now we are less than 3 days away... what happened?

The next question I have is, what happened to the "goodwill toward men" in the days leading up to Christmas? Have you noticed how people tend to keep their heads down when walking around? Sometimes I think they are keeping their heads down so they can better head-butt you if you accidentally wander into their path. Have you noticed that few people are smiling lately too? What happened to the good cheer? Right now the only cheer I have heard is "get outta my way..."

We won't even talk about the driving this time of year. My goodness, when did we sign up for an Indy race team? Where is everyone going in SUCH a hurry? Did anyone notice the beautiful sunsets that have been occurring? What about the beautiful sunrises? I know there are many places in the country right now that don't have the greatest weather, but that does not really give anyone the right to be mean and/or rude. Is it me, or are people ruder now than they have been in the past.

I hate to really note how much I have aged, but PLEeeaseee!!! do you have to not only cut me off on the freeway, but to flip me off too? Why did you have to squeeze into that one car space in front of me just so that you could slam on your brakes and almost crash into the back of the car I had been following? When did this time of year turn into a frantic race? By the way, what are we racing and where are we racing to?

Even the news has gotten really depressing. Many people seem to want to take advantage of so many other people. There are a record number of scams going on this time of year, people taking advantage of the few of us left who believe in the goodness of mankind. When did we forget about the real meaning behind Christmas? Even if you don't want to delve too deeply into the religious aspect of Christmas (that is for another time...), the concept of Christmas was to help your fellow man. Right now, it appears the large majority of people are out to help themselves, and forget about their fellow man.

What can we do to recapture the feeling of goodwill toward men? We have all allowed our day-to-day work lives to overflow into our home lives. I can freely admit to not very nice thoughts this time of year too. This time of year is always stressful, the desire to find the "RIGHT" gift for that certain person, the issues with not spending too much money, the extra demands on your time... all of these add up to a whole bunch of very grumpy people.

We all (myself included) to learn to stop and take stock of what we do have and to remember to be grateful for what we do have. We need to learn to stop looking at what we don't have and look at what we don't need instead. This is not an easy task, but once we get past the hard part (actually stopping for a minute or two...) the rest is not so hard to do. Tomorrow, I promise to not be as crabby, and to remember to smile (even though I may not WANT to SMILE) when I meet anyone. It is truly amazing how people light up when you smile at them for no particular reason (and no, snarling is not smiling...). I even took the opportunity tonight to wish a phone solicitor a Merry Christmas as I was completing a phone call. It was really amazing to hear their voice change when they realized I wished them well.

Take care, and let's all try not to get too stressed these last few days before Christmas. As much as we might strive to capture our child-like wonder of Christmas, we need to remember that we are now adults and need to look at Christmas as adults. We still need to be nice to others, and help when and where we can. It is amazing how much better you feel when you have helped someone, even if helping may only mean that you helped someone reach an item from the top of a grocery store shelf.

Hopefully we will finally realize what happened to the days before Christmas. We just forgot to be a little bit less stressed. With luck, we will all find the time to slow down just a tad and enjoy this special holiday time of year.

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Until tomorrow...