An Unspirited Christmas

I was putting more decorations up in the house, earlier this evening, as I was listening to Bing Crosby, and his rendition of "Frosty the Snowman". My mind started to wonder back to the days of my childhood, with my baby brothers stringing popped corn on thread to wrap around the Christmas tree, and mom and I baking sugar cookies, while dad was outside stringing lights across the eave of the house (cursing every now and then at something that seem to have disturbed him) all the while swaying to sound of Dean Martin and the Rat Pack softly crooning softly traditional christmas songs in the background. I thought of how are spirits were high and our hearts full of love, and how family was what christmas meant to us, and to everyone in those days. I suddenly, was saddened at the world around us now, and how Christmas didn't mean the same to society today, as it did to us back then.
Christmas is commercialized and competitive. Something has happened to our world to take the love out of traditions of old. And it's not just christmas that is upon ruin, it's everyday life that has turned from family oriented, to greed, money, and competitiveness. How much worse is it going to get? How long will we go on degrading ourselves in this manner?
I miss the feeling I got as a child. The love that I felt. The warmth that embraced me and surrounded me with family and good spirits.
Will we ever have those feelings of old again?

Good Friends, Good Times

There are so many things that I miss about the days of old, but I think that what I miss the most is the laughter, plain and simple.
I had a couple of old friends from High School over last night, friends that I hadn't seen in almost 13 years. We laughed, we cried, we laughed until we cried. It was wonderful. I don't think I had smiled that much since we were all kids. It was awesome to see how much each of us had change, but how in some sense, we hadn't changed at all. And though we hadn't seen each other in so long, one thing remained: friendship. We hadn't lost that old familiar feeling, and bond. It's funny, I know, that after so long that we came together as if we had never drifted apart. I thoroughly enjoyed, and know now that this is what had been missing in my life. The bond, the love, the friendship. I love my friends, and hope that we don't wait so long to come together in the future.