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There's what I believe to be a Corona ad that's been running for several years now that's set on a silent dark beach with a lone cottage and some palm trees, featuring an off-screen whistler doing a few bars of "Oh Christmas Tree". In the middle of this minimalist plug for beer, Christmas lights appear on one of the palm trees and the Corona logo pops up somewhere. I'm guessing about the Corona logo part, however, because I actually have no recollection of it. It must have been an effective ad, because I know it's about beer and I'm fairly certain about the brand. (Which was confirmed when I did a search prior to posting this.)

But this entry isn't about beer (this time), it promises to be a tedious diatribe about my perception of what Christmas should be and how in the past, that perception seemed to fudge up the actuality of it all. 

I was living in a colder climate when that ad first aired and I distinctly recall thinking to myself, "Beaches? Palm trees? Veritable isolation? That's not real Christmas. Real Christmas is frosty-cold and noisy and is about being bundled up with mittens and a hat that wrecks your hair and a sweater or two under a bulky coat and heading to a large family gathering where everyone talks and laughs all at once and too much food and liquor is consumed.

Or at least that's what it used to be about for me. Sometime over the last five or seven years, Christmas changed. And each time it morphed* into something new due to lack of funds to make it to the large family gatherings occurring on either coast, or death inconveniently stepping in to remove a key member of the festivities, I felt a keen absence of something that Should Have Been. And I'm being mild when I say I felt a "keen absence". It was more like a serrated knife stabbing me in the heart, throat and eyes all at the same time.

*Did I really just use the word morphed in a sentence? I insist it was unintentional.   

Luckily for you, this is the first abrupt end in a series of abruptly ended entries. This one ended because Hula suddenly arrived home from Chicago. I was going to go on at tedious length about how one can simply let go of expectations and enjoy just the moment that exists right now. (Yes this one. No, wait. THIS ONE!)