Letters to the Editor: Families matter

I hope you and your family had a nice Thanksgiving. It is true that it has become the forgotten holiday. We do not take time to be thankful for what we have, and we can always find something to be thankful for no matter how small. This year I have to admit I have really had to think hard, but I have thought of several things I have to be thankful for.

I stopped to think about all the families in our community who have lost loved ones this past year. My heart goes out to the Harlow and Bird families and the rest of the families that have lost loved ones.

I want to say to everyone, if you have a friend or family member that you have a broken relationship with, try your best to mend that relationship before Christmas. We never know, we may not have another holiday to spend with them.

As we begin the Christmas season, even if we don’t have the Christmas spirit, I hope everyone can spend some time with family and friends. We also need to take time to remember the true meaning of Christmas — the birth of Jesus. I say that if what we are trying to get done for the holidays becomes a chore for us, instead of enjoyment, it is time to keep it simple and enjoy what really matters. That is why I have decided — after looking at my schedule for the next few weeks and after much thought — I have decided to take our fiber optic tree out of the tote and plug it in, instead of spending hours decorating the usual two trees.

I was looking at some old photo albums the other day and I came across some pictures of Christmas in years past and thought about the good memories. I came across some pictures of Christmas when I was a kid at home. (We will not go in to how many years ago that has been!)

It was a family tradition that my Dad and I always went out and cut a real tree somewhere on our farm. Those were really good times, but I did not appreciate them at that time. Looking at the old pictures we really had some ugly trees. They were not the perfect shaped ones we see today. Christmas was not the overdone holiday that it its today.

As we celebrate Christmas this year maybe we can think about making a new family tradition as we spend time with our families and always remember to keep the real meaning of Christmas somewhere in our celebrations.

Merry Christmas.

Judy Bush,
Gallatin