Making memories is a holiday tradition

As we continue to forge forward, there a feeling in the air in my hometown and region that is very positive.

Despite anything that may be hyped up in the social media or on the news, folks are doing their very best to create a holiday season for their children and families that uplifts and goes beyond what those in power may want us focusing upon.

It is in times like these that I fondly look back upon the memories my parents created for me as a youth. The dinners, the parties, our traditions of decorating for Christmas and how we spent Thanksgiving and Christmas, all imprinted into my brain joys that still yield dividends in my heart.

Standing with my father, holding the end of a string of lights as we tried to discover the broken bulb before hanging those outside our home, remains a colorful moment in my memory.

We always finished it by hanging the large lighted face of Santa in the holly trellis by our door.

I can remember my mother shopped for weeks, picking up the items she needed to make her holiday meals a success. Extra was needed for guests and the additional food choices added to the monthly budget. But she would spread the purchases out over several weeks, to make it fit into the budget. An item here, and item there, especially while using coupons to make the deals even more affordable.

Holidays always meant family and friends visiting or us going to visit with them. Games, music, and lots of talk always combined into what we all saw as memories that we share in our hearts.

Today, it is a little hard to overlook the high costs associated with the expense of normalcy.

During Halloween, the cost of giving out candy was outrageous compared to previous years.

Now we are moving towards Thanksgiving. As we look around us, there are many great opportunities to find things to be thankful about. Despite the best efforts of those who may wish to infuse the political landscape into how we should conduct our holidays, I say “poppycock.” And for those who are not familiar with that word it means: nonsense or senseless talk.

I keep hearing via social media how some are uninviting friends and relatives to holiday events. Well, if that’s how you carry on your life, all I can say is you need a healing helping of the Holy Ghost. Nothing is more important than you relationships with family and tried and true friends of a lifetime.

Politics come and go, and despite philosophies, family and friends must overcome being on different sides of a vote.

We are all better than petty arguments over national trends that we have very little impact upon.

For an analogy, we all are passengers on the ship of state and we must find a way to live our lives, no matter which way it turns.

I see my neighbors already putting up their Christmas lights and shopping in the grocery stores for their holiday meals.

I am sure we will see many gather in their homes, sit around the table, take in a movie at a theater, watch some football on the big screen TV, go to the Christmas parade, and gather for holiday parties.

We have a life to share with those we love. Though sometimes we must forge different paths over things that happen in life, politics is not one of those things that merit such. Build the memories that you and your children will look to cherish decades from now when all the nonsense is forgotten.