I love how Christmas season makes me feel

BY Dawn Rankins

Hello Friday Flyer readers. I do hope you had a wonderful week with all the activities going on inside and outside of the lake. It sure is getting busier with each and every passing day as we get that much closer to Christmas.

I hope that the busyness of the holiday season doesn’t take up all your time. Remember, some of the greatest gifts are those memories we make with our family and friends.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve loved the feeling of Christmas. I have always loved seeing the lights and trees decorated, especially those in the malls and all around town. I would take long walks as I grew older and I would enjoy seeing how all the neighbors decorated their homes. I would get a warm feeling seeing Christmas come alive. To me, this was the spirit of Christmas.

When John and I had our very first Christmas together, he asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I told him, all I wished for was a real Christmas tree that I could decorate. I told him I wanted to fill our entire house with a little Christmas splash in each room. Every year, I get closer to being able to have that wish come true.

I didn’t have my first Christmas until I was 49 years old, and though I didn’t get to have Christmas for most of my life, I have always wanted to be a part of the feeling of Christmas.

Christmas to me has never been about the gifts so much, but rather, seeing families come together and unite. It was seeing grandparents going to visit their grandchildren and cousins getting together to play with their new toys. Christmas seems like it brings family together and family to me, is the most important part of my life. My family (and my friends who are my gifted family) is what makes the feeling of Christmas come alive for me.

Canyon Lake, though a smaller city, brings Christmas alive on such a grand scale. The feeling of Christmas was so prevalent at Winter Wonderland in the Town Center Saturday and then again at the golf cart parade on Sunday. Seeing how families decorated their golf carts was astounding, not to mention seeing how many of the families took it one step further and dressed up to go along with their cart theme.

As I drove the parade route to get photos for The Friday Flyer, I would stop now and again and people, who were lined up along the route anxiously waiting for their glimpse at the parade, would yell out to me, “Merry Christmas”.

I saw groups of people singing Christmas songs while others would start dancing and singing as I came by with my Christmas music playing. These people weren’t dancing and singing because I was The Friday Flyer reporter. They were singing, dancing and wishing John and I Merry Christmas because they were feeling the Christmas spirit.

The Christmas feeling is coming alive here in our hidden gem of the valley. Canyon Lakers, through the different local clubs, are finding ways to donate toys to charities. Those gifts are priceless. You see, those donated gifts will go to kids we’ll never know, but, in the spirit of Christmas, those gifts are giving the kids receiving them a chance at a happy Christmas memory.

We may not get to see our gifts opened by the many kids receiving them. I hope on Christmas morning, when a child whose family has hit hard times or perhaps a child who doesn’t have a family for Christmas this year opens the gift, it will bring them a happy moment and help them forget for just a breath of time the difficulties they are facing.

Christmas is a time to reflect on the many blessings from the past year. Christmas is a time to make wonderful memories. It’s the perfect time to reflect on what positive habits we want to carry over into the next year. For me, it’s a time to appreciate who God has brought into my life. I feel so blessed to be a part of celebrating Christmas with John, our sons, our family and our friends who are our family by choice.

This is what the feeling of Christmas means to me. I am humbled by the Christmas spirit I see and feel here in Canyon Lake. I know not everyone celebrates Christmas and that’s OK. I know some celebrate Hanukkah or maybe some don’t celebrate anything at all, but no matter what your celebration preference is, I hope we can all create wonderful memories with those who are important to us.

I hope each and every one of you is finding joy in this wonderful holiday season. I’d like to leave you with this quote from Polar Express, “Just remember, the true spirit of Christmas lies in your heart.”