Merry Christmas --- Be Yourself

The other day after I wrote my Solstice blog I received a few emails from readers who all said the same thing "be yourself, do what works for you" and I thought that was a wonderful thing to bear in mind. Face it, the holidays are a huge marketing tool and loaded with emotional baggage. But they are also more than that --- they are a time and a space in which people can take a break from everyday life and give time to the things in their lives that are important but that they don't always have enough time for in daily life.

There are the people who treat the holidays in a traditional manner with lots of presents and decorating and partying and food and spending time with family and friends. That is wonderful if they love doing that and if they do it with joy. And there are those who say "bah, humbug" and grouch their way through the holidays grumbling and growling and just wishing it would all go away. And then there are those of us who have struggled with what's-this-all-about and are trying to find a way of honoring this time of the year without driving ourselves crazy and getting caught up in consumer insanity.

Well, I've finished my knitting projects and I hope they will keep the recipients warm and happy. I've sent out a few Christmas cards to those people I love but just don't get enough time with throughout the year. I've attended a few Christmas gatherings and called a few people I won't get to see but want to remember and now I am focusing on the few things I'll do to honor the next 48 hours.

One thing I've decided to do is take a treat to a couple older friends who won't be going far and are restricted in their diets. Because I try to keep carbs down I created a pumpkin mousse that is sugarless and very low in carbs. I plan to deliver it to those folks who can't have sugar either. It's easy to make --- and absolutely delicious:

Low-Carb/Sugarless Pumpkin Mousse
Cream together:
8 oz. cream cheese
1 can mashed pumpkin (100% pumpkin, not the pie mix)
Add 1 cup Splenda or other sugar substitute) and 1 tablespoon cinnamon
Stir in 1 tsp.vanilla
When this is well mixed fold in a container of sugar-free whipped cream.
Spoon into containers and chill thoroughly.

You can spoon this into tall goblets for a pretty dessert --- dust with nutmeg or you can butter a pie dish, sprinkle it with almond slices and spoon the mousse in and chill well for a pretty pie.

Christmas, I have decided, is a lot like life --- you can either do what others expect or you can meet it on your own terms. Which you choose is up to you. I feel like, even though I've lived most of my life on what I thought were my terms, my life was really more an uneasy compromise between what I felt was expected of me and what I really wanted to do. It is only in the last four years that I've worked harder at the latter. That's one of the gifts of getting older. I lead a life that looks strange to some people but which works (most of the time) for me.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of the Christ child who, according to Christian tradition, came into this world to give humankind hope and salvation. Christmas also falls at the time of the year that was once celebrated as Saturnalia by the Romans and of various Solstice celebrations that honored the darkest time of the year which heralded the annual time of snuggling in, hunkering down --- the great silence that precedes that time coming of rebirth. For some people now Christmas is all about Santa Clause and giving and sharing and celebrating with others. Whatever this time of year is for you may it be a source of peace, satisfaction, joy, love, and a sense that, as one thing ends another new and fresh thing is beginning. May you embrace that with absolute confidence that you are going to be fine and those you love will be too and that, though sometimes there is darkness, it is in that darkness that angels arrive heralding the coming of goodness and renewed life.

Peace, love, joy to all.

Thanks for reading.