Kicking It at Christmas time

Elizabeth Youngman-Westphal

Special to The Village News

This is the month to dust off the New Testament and read the Gospel according to Saint Luke. The grandkids are old enough now to sit on the couch with me taking turns reading the scripture leading up to the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.

The story reminds me why, like a Miss America candidate, I, too, wish for “World Peace.” I wish to be safe in my home, on my community streets, and in the village where I live. I wish to be safe in my county, my state, and my country.

Regardless of one’s politics, the world was at peace just a few years back under a different President. It was the first time in decades that our soldiers weren’t at war.

Now it happens that the very elected officials that were voted into office refuse to allocate our tax dollars to protect us by leaving our borders open and our streets covered by homelessness. It is my Christmas wish this year to send “a pox upon them all.” Now, admit it, that made you smile?

Here at home, the Christmas tree is decorated and the packages are wrapped and shipped. But I swan, it would have been cheaper to use Santa’s sled. It is hard to even imagine that I paid over $100 to ship two boxes. Plus, stamps to mail the Christmas cards. It’s getting harder to maintain that jolly spirit.

The young clerk at the post office gave me an unbelieving look when I told him that a stamp once cost four cents when I was a girl. I’m not sure if he looked at me skeptically trying to imagine me as a girl or that a stamp was once four cents?

Back then, we were all horrified by the increased postage rate wondering just how high it would soar? A wonder I still feel to this day.

Even while I declare each year that this will be my last to mail cards, much to my chagrin, this year’s cards are addressed and waiting for postage. And by the way, for the first time in my recollection, the Christmas stamps are the same as last year’s. And they’re not pretty. Which boils down to this, if you’re getting a card again this year from me just ignore the ugly stamp.

Which group do you fall into? The sender of Christmas cards or the return card sender who only sends cards to whomever sends them one first? In the past, I’ve always been the initiator.

Which camp are you in? Are you one of those people who immediately sets down and addresses one back to me, or do you just put it aside and convince yourself that I really didn’t expect one in return? It is always a kerfuffle, isn’t it? Actually, I don’t mind that you send greetings after getting mine. What does make me semi-crazy is that I can never out-early one of my friends. Her card and breezy letter seem to appear while we are still taking the meat off the Thanksgiving turkey. It arrived a few days ago.

Some of you probably are saying “I don’t send cards anymore.” Hah! I’m thinking if you ever did you are one of those people that only signed your name at the bottom under the printed message or worse, you had your name preprinted on the bottom and used those white-homemade-mailing labels. I can understand why you shouldn’t bother. That’s just tacky.

Meanwhile, all that remains to do is a bit of baking. This year I am cutting back and only making Italian wedding cookies. You know what I’m talking about, those delectable snow balls of butter and chopped pecan rolled in confectioner’s sugar. The very ones that melt in your mouth leaving puffs of powdered sugar snow on your lips.

Which is where I will leave you with visions of sugar plums dancing in your head along with my heartfelt Merry Christmas to all.

Elizabeth can be reached at [email protected].