good tidings to you...

This Seson has been really good to me.
I don't celebrate Christmas in the sense that Christians do... I'm not a denominational person, I follow the idea of noticing and appreciating the changes of seasons and what they bring more than anything, so I guess I celebrate the Solstice/Yule... but I love the idea of giving gifts to people to show that I care and that I've paid attention to what they need/want/love. And I love a lot of the ideas about Christmas.
So with that in mind, I got one of the best gifts for Christmas ever... I had a really touching and wonderful phone conversation with my family [mom and dad]. Most people don't know that I really value my family and their input into my life - mostly because they don't live here in Cville, and I never see them anymore, so I don't talk about them all that much. A few people know about their SciFi obsession and their Con-going, and think that's cool [which it is], but they don't know how pivotal my Mom, for example, has been in my life. The sad thing for me lately is that I have barely talked to them all year, for various reasons. It got to the point where I was afraid that they were mad with me, and that kept me from talking to them even more. It became a whole cycle of guilt for me that I finally have been able to pull out of, and now I feel a little foolish for it, but I guess it does drive home how important they are to me. I don't intend to let that happen again. I'm really lucky in that I have really awesome parents... I'd be a fool to squander that.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day, one that brings them some sort of unexpected goodness.