Resolutions

One of the things we did a lot of when we were children was draw manger scenes with coloured pencils. I can't speak for my siblings, but I really enjoyed it. I think a lot of the feeling of Christmas, as to whether one sees it as too secular or not, comes from within. I never had a secular feeling about Christmas and I got immense satisfaction out of drawing manger scenes and pulling off the cardboard windows of an Advent calendar to see some elaborate drawing of the shepherds or the angels.

It is quite possible that my mother never knew how much it affected me. Parents often seem to clue out about things like that and when your children are older you may be surprised to find out how much they picked up on the spiritual element of Christmas and the level of meaning it had for them.

We also made a lot of decorations for the house and the tree, in the form of paper chains, cut out snowflakes and stars.

I like an old-fashioned tree and make popcorn chains and cranberry chains for my tree each year.

But happy birthday! I have a sister who has a birthday on Christmas day and I can tell you she has always felt ripped off. She was not ripped off, as she was also the baby of the family, and we always made a fuss over her and she always got extra presents. She and her husband recently bought their first house and she is having a birthday party a couple of days before Christmas - she calls it her 'first' birthday party.

The only thing we ever did to her was call her the child who ruined Christmas for us that year. It really was a horrible Christmas since our mother went into labour on Christmas eve and we weren't even into Christmas day when our father took her to the hospital. She was born just after midnight and our father's first words to the doctor were, "What did we win?"

He had confused a Christmas baby with the New Year's baby, haha.

I don't do resolutions. I think that Mennonites were always against them. You were supposed to make each day count, not make a bunch of resolutions to be good on one day and for the next year.

I personally have no religious objections to them but they don't make any sense to me on the above grounds. I don't do spiritual resolutions either since I am not sure what that means. I need help every day and I can't wait and hang on to resolutions for a new year.

I have a few errands to run now that can't wait.

Layla