Are you making your list and checking it twice? You can bet one guy is, at least it seems like a good bet when even grocery stores are putting out Christmas cookies.
Yep, Christmas is coming. Thanksgiving will pass and the Yuletide season will break open like an egg being cracked on the side of a skillet.
The shopping frenzy will begin. Everyone will be on the hunt to find those perfect gifts. That is until the last minute arrives and shoppers will grab what they can get knowing the recipient will be standing in the exchange line.
So just what is the perfect gift? Advertisements say it can be anything from diamonds to cars to clothes to that special formula to relieve nausea. Well, maybe not the last one, but if the drugs advertised on television were the miracle cures manufacturers want you to believe, they might be on Santa’s list.
So if not the diamonds, cars or clothes, then what? Time. That’s right, time. Just think of everything it has to offer.
If your parents or grandparents are still alive, it can be an opportunity to relive moments that have escaped day-to-day thoughts. Often these bring back the kind of laughter that escapes us all too often.
Time also gives us the chance to hear family histories and WRITE THEM DOWN. Just last week I talked to a couple of friends who have the same problem I do. That is I heard about all my relatives on Dad’s side of the family, but didn’t write down the heritage. Now, it isn’t as easy to find as I would have thought.
Time with families, of course, usually brings the opportunity for good food and plenty of it. Those whose diets crave home cooking because his or her life hangs in the balance with every order of fast food French fries will be eternally grateful.
There’s the time for holding fast to traditions. For example, there is the promise of being glued to the football game, stomachs full, on Thanksgiving Day.
Some families use Black Friday as a day to join together and kick off the Christmas season with the trip to visit every sale on the planet.
Many gather to attend church, maybe for the only time all year, but always on Christmas or Christmas Eve.
But the truth is that no excuse is needed. There doesn’t have to be a plan, an agenda or a tradition. Family time is the greatest gift to give each other.
It’s important. The more years a person has behind them, with fewer in front, this importance speaks louder and louder.
Time. It can only be used once. It can’t be returned. It’s here for every second to be used wisely. It’s the second greatest Christmas gift.
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Glenn Harbison is publisher/editor of The News Observer. He can be reached at 706-632-2019 or by email at glenn@thenewsobserver.com.