Christmas of Friends and Family

The Christmas season holds no religious significance for me.

Rather, it has always been a time for remembering special friends and family. For spending some personal time with those special people in my life, and knowing that things are going well for them. For seeing out a year that has been lived with grace and goodness and looking forward to the promises of the next.

But more often than not, I would end up trying to meet the demands and expectations of work and family, taking it upon myself to make sure that everything and everybody is taken care of. The season then becomes an annual exercise in surviving a month-long marathon of rushing from pillar to post. On the outside, I am the very picture of Christmas itself, idiotically cheery in giving of my time and self. On the inside, I'd like nothing better than run away from it all.

This time around, things went just about right at every turn. I had the chance to meet up with different friends separately under circumstances that suit their particular preference. A quiet dinner at home with new parents with infant, intimate coffees and lunches with the girlfriends, family outing on parents' day with friends and their pet, a hafla or two in there to meet up with a very special breed of friends.

And on Christmas eve, family dinner at home which included friends with their grown children who are visiting for the holidays.

Every occasion was memorable. Every one was special. Every greeting of well-wishes was sincere.

Making the time to celebrate friendship and family - this, for me, is what makes Christmas a special time of the year.