What Did Your Parents Get for Christmas? - A Reprise

Did you ever ask your parents what kind of stuff they got for Christmas? I'm guessing it was simpler fare than that on the letters to Santa in this day and age:
Today: an Apple (not the fruit, the laptop)
Yesterday: an orange (yeah, just the fruit)

I guess what I'm thinking is: if you asked your folks what their hopes and dreams were around the holidays, they wouldn't have expected what kids do today and, I know, they also used to hike 10 miles to school and back in a blizzard backwards with no shoes while carrying their younger siblings...and had to chip the ice off their slates to take their notes in class. Before you laugh the old folks off and snuggle into your heated home with your laptop or your mobile and your full belly, yawning with the boredom of it all, take a moment.

Remember that it wasn't always this easy - even in your own family - and that it still isn't easy at all for the majority of the world's population. Be grateful for what you have and maybe consider asking for something really simple for Christmas. 

Think about how far that orange came that you're eating and who picked it.
Use your imagination. Be thoughtful. Interact with someone ...without a keyboard - you know, face to face, on the street.
Draw someone a Christmas card and tell them your life would be less rich without them. 
Play a game.
Use your imagination.
Write a letter to a friend and smile at a stranger.

I'm going outside to walk and breathe the crisp evening air in a city at peace.

Happy holidays and a huge hug to all the people that made sure I was still standing after the year gone by with all of its joys and sorrows. 

Love to you all! You mean the world to me.

Gillian