Right now, it is December 15, 2023. Just 10 days until Christmas.

Every year, it seems like December rushes by so quickly and I hardly feel like “Christmas” really happened and we’re already into the New Year.

I listen to all the old Christmas music classics, bake cookies for some of my friends, neighbors, the mailman, the staff at the restaurant I go to every Friday for breakfast tacos.

Something feels like it’s missing though. What a wondrous thing it would be if I could just experience Christmas as a kid again and be with my parents one more time (they left this world a lot of years ago). Maybe that’s what’s missing.

Thomas Wolfe wrote a novel “You Can’t Go Home Again.” That’s the truth of it all. We don’t have a way to return to our past and experience it again. And even if we did, it would probably not be as we remembered it.

Maybe it’s like dropping off a friend at the airport, and you know you may never see them again. As you are leaving, you just want to run back and give them one more hug before they to. That’s it, I just want to go back and give my mom and dad one more hug.

Well, I have this moment. I’ll make the best of this moment. Hug the people I love. Be thankful for my family, especially that I can be with them at Christmas time. I embrace this moment as special because this is where my life is lived. I have to remember to be grateful, take nothing for granted.

So, in ten days, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. (shhh… don’t tell anyone. December 25th wasn’t really his birthday). For me, that is something to celebrate though. Jesus made a difference in my life. But that’s for another story on some other day.