I know I have been absent way too much lately…but you know how life can be. It is now Christmas here in Jacksonville, FL. For the first time in way too many years, I have my daughter with me this holiday season. Her father remarried (again) and her new step-mom does not like our daughter. Since it was the step mothers goal in life to make Claire’s life miserable…and she succeeded, I have now been blessed with my beautiful 17 year old. She is suppose to be a sophomore in high school. As many of you know, I travel for a living and since she will be with me until she decides she does not want to be here anymore, I have gotten her out of a traditional school and am now “home schooling” her via correspondence courses. If she needed all 4 years worth of credits then it would cost me about $1450 but it is suppose to be less once they get her transcripts. I am working with her so that she can study and get the stuff done sooner rather than later…hopefully that is.
Because I had to give up my job to bring my daughter to my mothers, there is not much of a Christmas this year. I have 1 present for her, and that is only because I bought it months ago and had it put up. She knows this and says it is ok. I am doing more for her now than her father has done for her in the 2 years she was living with him this time. And I know it is a lot more than my sister did for her in the 5 years she lived there.
In many ways I am glad that there is not a lot of money to spend on stuff that we really do not need. It means that we are doing more together as a family than we normally would. None of us has spent more than a small bit of money. In a time when so many people go into big debt to give their children a “Christmas to remember” they tend to forget that the real reason we celebrate was cause God allowed his only child to come to earth to live as an example for us and to die so that we can spend eternity in a better place.
It does not matter what you believe. If you are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan or any other faith. Have faith that things could always be worse than they are at the moment. For those of us that still have them, we have families that we can spend time with. We here in the U.S. at least have our freedom thanks to the wonderful Men and Women of Our Armed Forces that are not home with their families this time of year. Live your life so that you are not ashamed of yourself when you look back on your life. Remember that the things we do comes back onto us. Forgive people that have wronged you in any way. Love everyone and be the kind of friend to others that you want others to be to you. Above all, enjoy the time you have with friends and family because none of us are promised anything other than this moment.
Merry Christmas and a Happy Prosperous New Year
