Last Christmas

Better late than never I suppose, to hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Most of my neighbors went away for the holiday. The few that stayed around were visited by friends and family and from the sound of things they all had a wonderful time. It was enjoyable to watch and listen to the laughter.
For the past twelve years I have spent the two weeks before Christmas baking. Last year, when I was working twelve and fourteen hour days and most weekends, I made the time to bake. Usually in June or July I will sit down and go through my recipes, old and new, and decide what will come out of my kitchen at Christmas. Not only do the recipes get chosen but I start purchasing the non-perishable ingredients over the months leading up to the baking weeks. Chocolate and some of the other ingredients are expensive so buying them over a period of time or catching things on sale helped tremendously. Unfortunately there will be no baking this year and it breaks my heart. I had made my list of recipes and products to purchase when my job ran out but I did not worry because I was sure another would come along; wrong. This year my twelve year tradition has fallen by the wayside. You are probably wondering what the big deal is. Well the big deal is that for the past twelve years all the baking I have done has gone one place; North Augusta Public Safety. No one asked me to do it, it just sort of happened one year and I have done it ever since. I do it because they put themselves on the line for us everyday with little thanks and my gifts of baked goods are a small way to say thank you for making me feel safe. I have apologized to them for not being able to do it this year and even though they do not ask for it I still feel sad about not being able to.
This time of year is geared to family. Every commercial, sappy happily ever after movie, cooking show and soap opera shows family gatherings, joyous Christmas mornings and fun parties all with smiling family and friends. What happens to the single people with limited or no family this time of year? These people sometimes go into deep depressions believing that there is no one out there that cares about them at all. The suicide rate climbs during the holidays. Take the time to let your single neighbor or someone you know who is alone, that you care about them. For all the joys this time of year brings to you take a few minutes out of your hectic life to make a difference in their lives. Who knows, you may just save someone’s life. At the very least you may make someone smile.