I like to have a small nativity set out all year :)

Decorations-this year I only have a few because I was busy, however they make me happy to see them. Christmas sugar cookies.

For me it's a reminder of all the love and good times i had as a child with my family and friends, i used to be very excited and get up early in the morning to open my presents ... nowadays it's a time of giving love and friendship to all, especially those that are dear to my heart ... joy to all

I have been thinking about your two recent questions, Jai - About expressing myself honestly, though in different ways and varying moods, here - and about Christmas traditions, and I came across two stories about my personal holiday experiences that I told at different times in recent years, in emails to my sister. I thought that they covered both subjects quite well; the different faces of Christmas, and the different (though still honest) faces of "Grace". So I have decided to share both emails here:

December, 2008 A Christmas Story

So I'm at the PO box place, where the lady who works there, Sunny, just adores me, we don't know why. She says I have the face of an angel, and a smile that lights up the room. (Eyeroll.) Our kids go to school together, and we chat sometimes. Sunny is such a sweet lady, and she is the one who lights up a room! She surprised me last week with a potted Poinsettia. I was there now with a box of candy for her.

I came in right after a kinda mean looking guy had just come in and walked determinedly right back out again in somewhat of a huff. I went to Sunny at the counter, and she's standing there looking vexed shaking her head and saying "Grace, I told him NO!", but wouldn't say any more. He was headed back in with his buddy, and I was a little scared. I had obviously walked in on something, and I'm thinking, well, she might know how to defend herself, (she's a little Korean lady), and I'm at least a little bigger than her, so maybe together we can do something about it, if this gets ugly. If we stand our ground together, make a show of strength, she and I, side by side, will make the best outcome we can out of what seemed to be some kind of a bad situation. We stood, ready, to face these two big men.

The guy comes back in with his friend, and they're dragging a big Christmas tree, fresh from the lot. He doesn't speak very good English (he is Hispanic), but he is saying to Sunny, "I brought this for you, and you to take it!" Sunny is saying, "No, no - you don't need to do this! It costs too much!" My jaw dropped. The other guy is just standing there, grinning at all of us.

Sunny looks at me while they are distracted setting up the tree and whispers that he is from the homeless shelter, and she has been bringing him water and food. Now he works at a Christmas tree farm, and isn't homeless any more.

Christmas Tree Guy starts getting emotional and saying, "I work 12 hours a day, I have PLENTY of money, and they let us each have a tree for working there!" Sunny's objecting, saying his family needs it, or he must have paid for the base, etc... and Christmas Tree Guy starts getting really upset, his voice is breaking up, and he's nearly shouting now "If you don't want it, I'll just take it outside and leave it in the street! I'll just throw it in the trash! I flocked it myself!!! I'll just throw it away!!"

By this time, all four of us have tears streaming down our faces, and I said quietly to Sunny, "I really think you really should take it, it means a lot to him."

Then, she focuses on the box of chocolate I've brought and starts in on me. "You don't have to do that, why you do that? I just wanted you to have the flowers because you're so sweet!" I told her "Same back at ya, lady, and all of this is your fault for bringing out the best in everybody at Christmas with your big, warm heart. So there!"

And we all just left her there, in a big puddle like a melted snow woman, grinning and crying and yelling Merry Christmas!

Nice, huh? True story. :)

Now, here's another true Christmas story, sharing another side of "Grace", as told in another email to my sister...

December, 2010 Another Christmas Story

...Well I made that appt for the eye doc at Costco for noon on Saturday. Found out later that it was supposed to absolutely pour with rain from about 10 am to 3 p.m. I thought well, I'm English! I love the rain! Bah! and I have to buy stuff for Christmas at Costco anyway, and I don't have to wait till my son is home to help me - BAH! I'm not helpless!!! And besides, there will be no crowds because of all the wussies scared of a few drops of rain! HA! And I left the house singing Christmas carols and grinning at the pretty weather.

Ahem. What's that saying? Pride goeth before a fall? I got my contact lenes, and I gotta hand it to the shoppers, they were determined enough to pack Costco regardless of the gale. I spent $100 ($46 over budget) and got only things that weigh at least 50 lbs each. It all took 4 times as long as it should have due to the crowds, so I wore myself out shopping till I just about dropped, then stepped out into a cold storm with sideways rain blowing under my umbrella, straight into my face by the bucketful.

I was soaked through by the time I'd limped to my car (in the handicapped section, sniff) and I couldn't get the shit outta the bloody cart with one hand holding my umbrella because it all weighed, as I said, about 50 lbs a piece and was a bit slippery - being sopping wet - so I ended up losing my temper and flinging the umbrella on the ground and getting soaked again just hurling all crap in the trunk as fast as I could. Let's just say I wasn't exactly singing on my way home.

I got home and tried to lug all the stuff upstairs and the bloody spinach dip jumped ship about the 6th step up and went bouncing back to the ground, throwing great blobs of dip all over the place on its way down. It had cracked open, you see. I tried to salvage what was left (it had cost a fortune) but there were shards of sharp broken plastic hiding in it, and I wasn't entirely certain whether or not a pincher bug had crawled in there while I sweated and cussed my way up to the house with all the rest of the stuff I'd bought. Pincher bugs look a lot like bits of spinach; don't know if you knew that. Then I had to go back out in the pouring goddamn rain to wipe up the bloody dip before the landlord got home and went sliding in it.

LOL Henry's [the cat's] face when I got in the door was priceless. He was like WTF happened to you!!!??? I still swearing quietly, chucking things into cupboards and peeling off soaking wet clothes as I went, expressing serious doubts as to exactly how English I really am.... I may have made a few rude references to the milkman... (sorry, Mom.)

I have pulled every muscle in my body, and my hip and back and neck have been screaming for drugs ever since. Apparently, I lifted all 5,000 lbs of shit with my neck. I'm still not able to get my shoulders out of my ears, and I have precious little to show for it. I did manage to salvage the turkey jerky, however, which is what seems to have given me constipation. As for dinner - There's obviously no spinach dip, but it doesn't matter anyway, because crusty bloody bread we were to eat it with is nothing but a soggy mush. As far as I'm concerned, we can have turkey jerky and contact lenses for dinner, I'm done!

Merry Christmas to all, with love,

Grace

:)