Snowflakes and Christmas Carols (Why We Need Christmas This Year).

Under normal circumstances, this is an interesting time of year.  The idyllic mixes with reality and creates for each of us an individual holiday picture.  Over the course of the past twelve months, we have lived through triumphs and hardships, trials and tribulations, all personal and all meaningful.  These events set the tone for each of our respective Christmas seasons.

And we, as humans, emotionally attach ourselves to material possessions to set the perfect stage for Santa.  The perfect tree; the perfect gift; the perfect dinner party.  Get the carols on.  Send the cards out.  Go through the motions, the hustle and bustle and feel good.  Send the negative events of the past year packing.

The events of this past Friday have altered that reality in each one of us.  We have all been affected…in some way.  For me, it wasn’t only the heartache of the tragedy, but the shear need to shield my daughters from it.  The feeling of the “realness” of it.  My babies are seven and three.  My older daughter was born in 2005, just like some of the angels of Sandy Hook.  And that has been eating at me.  They don’t know it.  And they won’t know it.  They are so excited for Christmas they can hardly stand it.

As a mom, I want to be all in.  For them.  I am finding it hard to focus.  But, I need to; we need to.  We can’t let that monster take Christmas this year.  As adults, we will have meaningful conversations about guns and we will change laws and we will openly discuss mental illness and we won’t attach a negative stigma to it.

As parents, we will celebrate our children and their innocence.  We will sing carols and make cookies and for a few days, tuck our grown-up minds away and look at the world through the eyes of our children.  We will give hugs and kisses and be silly.  We will celebrate their joy and pure excitement.   We will remember that children are like snowflakes…each unique and each beautiful.

And we will not forget the events of last week or of our individual last years.  We will take them all and use them to make us stronger people, better parents and a healthy, healing nation.

Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  ~Beth

Photo courtesy of Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rachel_s/429074338/