Scrooges Musings

I’m the last one to get into the Christmas spirit; I dread clearing a path to the buried boxes of Christmas decorations, would rather sit and watch football, than climb on the house hanging lights. I get tired just thinking about fighting the crowds to go shopping. I could easily be characterized as a Scrooge.
Yet, while decorating the Christmas tree with my family, reluctantly drug away from some uneventful sports event on TV, I reach for an ornament given to me by my mom when I was spending Christmas alone in cold, dark Alaska. Warm memories of comfort and family enter my mind. I grab another ornament from the box, this one was given to my wife and I for our first Christmas together, another one pulled from the box, this one a gift representing our first home together, then another representing my oldest son’s first Christmas another one from Jimmy and Jonathan’s arts and craft phase. I begin looking at all the ornaments on the tree, the floor the table yet to be placed and realize that they represent more than ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. These ornaments represent love and friendship, family and great times together. They represent personal growth and family growth, hard times and great times, they represent the “Jim Hill” family.
These ornaments are more than just plastic or glass, crystal or wood. They are symbols, they are representations of my investment in people and others investment into me and my family. Christmas joy began to well up in my heart – the trappings of scrooge began falling aside and I’m trying to not only leave them on the floor but sweep them out of my life. To my family and friends I say thank you! Thank you for filling my Christmas season with great memories and giving me hope for many more fantastic seasons to come.