Christmas At Last!!!

“Had a Holly Jolly Christmas and it brought me much good cheer. Oh by Golly had a Holly Jolly Christmas, this year!”

So how was yours?

Did you get all you wanted or were you left wishing that you had that one more thing that would make your life perfect……….

That gift really doesn’t exist, you know.

The ability to have a perfect life comes from within and has everything to do with the ability of each of us to accept who we are and to be able to be happy with all of that…………stuff that goes with it. To be able to accept the “baggage” and be, if not happy, at least OK with it.

I personally had the most wonderful Christmas ever. I think the only time I felt more joy at Christmas was the time I got my son a dog when he was five years old and saw the look on his face as that puppy ran towards him and jumped on him, licking and humping as only dogs can do.

But this one was so very satisfying. To be with the woman I love and watch her as the joy of the season came over her. To witness the joy of a family reunited for the holidays and to see how wonderful it truly is just to be together.

And besides, after proclaiming that I got the best Christmas present ever for my girl, it just had to be good.

But I need to set the scene…………….

As we get older, we get more and more “stretched out of shape” which causes come concern and consternation. I’m sure that many of you are aware of this phenomenon by now. So after a good year of trying to find some way to exercise within the confines of a busy life and failing time and time again, I decided to take matters into my own hands – so I did the unthinkable: I bought a rowing machine for Christmas. Not a Sears rowing machine that folds up neatly under the bed but a big commercial Concept II Ergometer just like the ones in the gym. And to augment this process so we could measure our results I got a new set of scales – really good ones.

So by now, the girls reading this are understanding what’s happening and the boys are still confused.

So let me tell you how it works – you never, ever get a girl something for Christmas or any other occasion that even remotely has anything to do with her weight. It just isn’t done.

But I had an ace in the hole and I really need to get back in shape so I just took a chance.

So the huge, commercial rowing machine was under the tree in the morning and when she saw it, she just kind of looked at it. I’m sure she was wondering if that was “the perfect Christmas present” I had talked about.

Of course it wasn’t – but she wasn’t so sure at this point because after all, I am a man which allows me to be extremely stupid at times.

So the next gift she got was the scales. At which point, she announced that she was almost ready to cry.

I still bravely held back.

The next gift she unwrapped was a coffee mug that you plugged in to the cigarette lighter in the car to keep your coffee hot. Now this one broke two rules of gift giving for girls – you don’t buy them anything that plugs in – but worse than that – this was a gift I had given her last year that had sat in the cupboard all year and had never been taken out of the box.

Well, at this point I could see that my sense of humor was only funny to me – because she really was about to cry.

So I quickly moved towards a make-up gift.

And of course, she was mad and initially refused to even open it. But I talked her into it and she unwrapped a most beautiful diamond and sapphire bracelet. She finally smiled!!!

It is a great piece of jewelry and I was very proud to give it to her – and that still wasn’t the perfect Christmas gift, but it wasn’t time for that one yet.

So we rocked along and opened the thousands of other gifts that were there for all and enjoyed the joy of children as they tore through all their loot. And finally, when it was almost over, I gave her the small box with the perfect Christmas present in it.

It was a simple letter that said that I was flying her out on Saturday to Los Angeles and taking her to see her favorite performer, Lyle Lovett, in a New Years Eve concert in downtown L.A.

Jackpot!

All was forgiven.

The rowing machine was put in the garage.

Happy Days were here again.

I am happy to report that after everyone left the house that morning – well, let’s just say that Christmas was very, VERY happy for this boy and that’s all I’m going to say about that!!!

So as I prepare for a wonderful New Year’s Even, I am praying that your Christmas was as wonderful as mine was and that you got everything you wanted.

Just remember, if you didn’t – there’s always next year!!!

Peace.