“Happy” holidays…

Since 2009, this has not been an easy time of year for me, to be honest. On December 25, 2009, at approximately 6:30 pm, after an approximately seven year battle with untreated (and I don’t consider Christian Science “treatment” to be any sort of valid treatment at all) heart failure, my Dad died. My holiday malaise usually gets going around the weekend of American Thanksgiving, usually the last Thursday of November. That’s when I flew out to where Dad lived to look after him in what turned out to be his last days.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

I wrote this piece a few years ago, and since today is Christmas Eve, I present it here for you, dear readers. I’ve edited it a bit for context to this blog, and for the passage of time since I originally wrote it. Here is my take on Christmas and some of the issues surrounding the holidays that seem to come up ad nauseam and are kind of a kill-joy on the season for me.

For the past five years, Christmas has been a holiday that has brought me mixed feelings.