Another Christmas - Being 60 (week 34 - by Margaret Ullrich)

I've just gotten through my 60th Christmas.

Okay... I have to admit I don't remember the first few.  As an infant I must have been dazed by the lights and noise.  

And a few other Christmases - especially the ones during my 50s - kind of came and went.

But, there were other Christmases which, like the ones Scrooge's Ghost of Christmas Past showed him, will always come to mind at this time of year.

They are in my own personal holiday film library, my own It's a Wonderful Life and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Most of the memorable ones weren't particularly noteworthy.

They weren't markers for special years, like 21 or 50.

I didn't go to any place exotic.

I wasn't doing a 'bucket list' thing.

I didn't receive the Hope diamond.

But the special Christmases had moments that stayed with me.  The memory of them gets triggered by something simple - a bite of a cookie, the scent of a candle, the sight of an old Christmas ornament.

I think it's that way for most people.

Stores do their darndest to make us buy something to make this Christmas special.

Chill.

It already is.