BEWARE: THE FOLLOWING IS MY ANNUAL SHOUT OUT TO SCROOGE.
Dear Writers of Christmas Card Family Yearly Enclosures,
Amidst all the joy of the Season, for some strange reason, I have a few Scrooge-like impulses. This is one of those impulses. Sorry.
I consider myself to be lucky. Great family. Great friends. We all share and acknowledge that friendship abundantly during the Christmas Season with the annual Christmas card and message. However, some enclosed messages are bordering on the excessive triumphing of your kids successes through the year. Some of these "kids" are in their late twenties. Do you really need to know that the budding capitalist, Johnny, Jr., is killing them at Harvard Business School; that your ecologist daughter, Mary Catherine, is saving the native Hickman's onion from extinction; and, that Buck, the family dog, is still flushing out the pheasants in the brush at age 13. I beg you to give it a rest. A family picture, a message, a few words is quite enough to bridge the gap of time distance.
So, If I were to be chemically-influenced enough to write a Christmas letter enclosure, for which I abhor the thought, for what it's worth, this is what I would write:
Merry Christmas.
Hope this card finds you in good health and good spirits. And if otherwise, then, that's OK too! We understand.
Dan, Marian and the kids are getting by and that life continues to challenge and reward us on a daily basis. Relationships come and go. Joys arrive and depart. Faith wavers. Meals missed. Work challenges. Sleep interrupted. Successes embraced. Money short. Health improves. Faith restored. Opportunities lost. Failures endured. Suprises...and so on.
However, clothed in that daily reality, we all wake up, report, earn, help, love and go home to our respective domiciles alone or towards someone. Hopefully, we realize faith, tenderness, respect, trust and purpose in each gift of day.
We pray for each other that God will guide, protect and direct us in the way that HE wants us to go. We look for opportunities to help those who can't help themselves. And that we remain open to that spirit.
We pray for all of you. For your families. For your health. For your livelihoods. For your peace of mind.
Merry Christmas and if the holidays are terrible and lonely that's OK. Know you're not alone for whatever solace that may give you.
May God bless you all and to all who help us throughout the year.
Love,
The Corrigans
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