A Toast to Christmas Present

A toast to Christmas Present. I raise my glass.

The older I get the more simple and complicated Christmas seems to be. This year is no different, and oh so different.

Those I love most celebrated Christmas together in Toronto, this year. My younger daughter, her husband and my three year old grandson flew from The East Coast to join my older daughter and my two granddaughters to experience a new Christmas. The adventure began with much generosity of spirit.

Knowing I was very welcome to join in the festivities, I chose to stay in this old house on the cliff  to be with them from afar. I have so much faith in the generation that follows me to celebrate well and I also know my proclivity to drop "bits of wisdom" unsolicited, into conversations, I didn't want to add to the joyous chaos

Facebook was alive with their activities. I observed a perfect holiday, knowing such a thing does not exist. Christmas is a time of grand excitement relieved by the odd, mandatory meltdown. I was spared the wrinkles in so much merriment.

Towards  the end of the visit my daughter from Halifax developed an impressive case of strep throat, but made it onto the plane, visited a clinic and arrived home to sleep for eighteen hours.

It is hard to explain how important it is to me that my daughters love each others company. I come from a large extended family that through time has dwindled. My generation did not go forth and multiply.

My aunt Barbara and my mother, Myra, seldom if ever went more than a few days without being in touch with the other. They were both creative human beings in unique ways, and perhaps had a sprinkling of the magic of pixelated sisters. From childhood into adulthood, there was endless, though sometimes sadly interrupted, family fun while they both lived. The cottage life on Lake Simcoe, was always a refreshing break from the harder realities of the outside world. At times it is hard to believe that such a time and place ever existed.

Sixty-five years ago today, on New Year's Day, my seven year old sister died at home of a now curable form of childhood cancer. There has been too much projecting the of that sweet, young life into the future, but there has always been a warm safe place for her in my heart. It is impossible to wipe all the possibilities away.

Knowing my daughters are close and that my son in law and grandchildren were part of the joyous mix, brings warmth to my life and tears to my eyes.

A toast to Christmas present and New Year wishes for all that is good in 2015. I raise my glass