Simple Christmas idea #4 -- Turn off the TV

Removing distraction...

I've moodled this idea before, but it seems to have even more significance for the Christmas season somehow. When I was growing up, my sisters and I decided we would give up TV for Advent one year. Not veging in front of the boob-tube gave us a lot more time to prepare homemade Christmas gifts, curl up and read, practice Christmas carols on the piano or guitar, hang out with friends and each other, and a lot of other things that made us happier than any Christmas TV programming could.

When it comes to the holidays, the fact is that people connect better without background noise, or top news story interruptions. Giving up the TV might seem difficult during Christmas special season, but time to do special things with the people you love is always worth more, isn't it? Heck, it might even be worth turning off the cell phone, at least on Christmas Day. Or longer, if you dare!!

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Here's a little something that's too good not to share. At L'Arche last Monday, I told my core member friend Thomas that we got a new car on the weekend. (After becoming a single car family we soon realized that we need one that will be able to make it through back alley snowbanks in the winter time and pull our trailer in the summer, so we opted for a Hyundai Santa Fe. Our smaller, shorter car is up for sale.) Nothing excites Thomas like a new car. He went straight to the window to look for it, and was a little disappointed when I told him that my husband took it to work.

On Tuesday, Thomas asked me about my new car again, and I told him my sad story. The fellow who parks beside Lee somehow neglected to notice the slightly larger new vehicle beside his usual parking spot, and managed to scrape the paint off the rear corner of it on the first day. 

Thomas was alarmed. "You sad?" he asked, sitting down beside me. 

"Yes, Thomas, I'm a bit sad," I admitted. 

He leaned in closer. "You wanna talk about it?" he asked. "You can talk to me."

He was ready for me to cry on his shoulder. I was so touched, I offered him a cookie from my secret stash. 

"You're nice to me," he said, happily munching.

"You're nice to me, too," I smiled.

Today is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, and I'm celebrating Thomas and all my friends with disabilities!