A tradition Dawn and I look forward to each Christmas season is “The Singing Christmas Tree” at our church. We went Saturday night a week ago and agreed it was the best performance we’ve seen. Of course, having seats in the 6th row helped, but the theme this year - Christmas celebrated around the world - was especially enjoyable. It’s the Tree’s 51st year in production and more than 25,000 people see and hear it each year. The church membership includes so many talented performers, and the production is done so professionally, we’re always amazed. We’ve already bought our tickets for next year.

Another traditional holiday event for us is attending “A Peter White Christmas” in the Gazetta Grand Ballroom. We went last Thursday night, enjoyed fifth row seats and heard some great Christmas music performed by Peter White, Rick Braun and Mindy Abair. It’s always a nice evening this time of year and helps keep us in the holiday spirit. We forgot a camera, so we grabbed a couple shots with Dawn’s iPhone. I’ll post them if they’re decent. The iPhone is great, but the camera is “iffy” when hand held in low light.

I say every year that you won’t catch me near a shopping mall during the holidays, and most years I’ve managed to steer clear of mall crowds. But despite my resolve, Dawn and I found ourselves in the “crunch” of it this season. I’d thought we were pretty much finished with Christmas shopping - we started well before Black Friday - but there were still a few straggler items we needed to procure so, much to my chagrin, we were out “in it” last night.

The worst part for me is always the standing in line; I’m a particularly poor “line stander,” especially if I’m alone. But Dawn was with me last night and it wasn’t bad at all. We got in, grabbed what we needed, and got out. And now we’re finished!

After wrapping up the shopping, we drove through some of the neighborhoods known for elaborate Christmas lights and decorations. We haven’t done that the last couple years and we’ve missed it. The homes in the “Fab 40’s” were especially well done. It was a wonderful way to tie off holiday shopping. After a relaxing dinner at Tahoe Joe’s, we drove home to watch “White Christmas” but fell asleep before it even started.

With money tight this year, we made a lot of gifts and, quite surprisingly, found that despite the work involved, we really enjoyed it. It helped us regain some of the true spirit of Christmas that we sometimes misplace when it’s all about shopping. Sure, most of what we’ll be giving the grandkids is “retail”, but much of what we’re giving the adults in our family are things we made ourselves. Dawn especially outdid herself this year, making several gifts that reminded me how truly amazing and talented she really is. She worked hard on them but was proud of what she’d accomplished when she finally finished.

We’ll be having our Christmas Eve dinner and family tree at Steve and Lori’s home again this year and we’re really looking forward to spending the evening surrounded by the kids and grandkids. Our family gets together with some regularity and it’s always fun, but Christmas is our favorite time to be with those we love.

It’s like Linus says: “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”