The big things are what matter this holiday season

A friend commented that the turkeys at the grocery store seemed smaller than last year. I told him that was impossible. An 18-pound turkey is an 18-pound turkey. Maybe the price tag was larger.

I think everything seems smaller than we remember when we were younger. Christmas trees and presents. They’re smaller. Turkeys and green bean casseroles. Long dinner tables and centerpiece candles. Maybe the older we get, the smaller our eyes grow. The less magical things seem.

I hope not. Holidays are always part reality, part dream. We wait for them in anticipation. The decorations and the music. The recipes and the children running all over the house. And then, a day or two before the festivities comes the cooking and prepping. The shopping and the last minute pick-ups.

Life is complicated. It’s part stress, part enjoyment. Part celebration, part clean up. It’s like everything else, worth the wait and then longing for it to come again.

I like it when people share holiday traditions. Thanksgiving is unique to all of us, but in different ways. Dinner at 12pm for some, and 6pm for others. Gravy on everything or no gravy at all. For most of us, what we remember as special as kids is…