We had unseasonably warm, rainy and gloomy Christmas Eve weather on our farm in NJ. With deep appreciation for loved ones present, elsewhere and my departed parents, we feasted on heritage turkey raised here and organic vegetables from the fall harvest. Our younger kids went to bed excitedly after night before Christmas stories, while my delightful older daughters conversed about college, their early careers and relationships.
I take an exhausted moment to close my eyes and reflect on the message of Christmas for me: We’re here to love, to be loved and pursue our dreams. In special moments like today I feel especially fulfilled and wish the same for everyone. Happy Holidays! – Tom Casey

The Christmas Season surely has different meanings for each of us.  In the center of all of the flurry of activity, there lies the true gift of the season.  We each have our own.  It’s a feeling that warms our hearts, than brings a sense of connection and connectedness. This Christmas may you find the time to quietly feel your personal Christmas gift.  Thanks for being part of our growing family of friends – Dr Daria

I love how Christmas allows us to keep traditions alive, even with modern technology. Sue and I will be gathered at home to enjoy food and fellowship with our family from around town. But we’ll also log on for a video chat to open packages together with our daughter and her husband, who couldn’t break away from Portland, Oregon, to join us. Here’s hoping that everyone can connect with loved ones this Holiday season, no matter the distance. – Dave Carter

Merry Christmas to all! Here’s a toast to discovering more ways to bring peace, joy, happiness and good food into our lives during the new year. And a special happy holiday wish to my amazing and talented fellow bloggers here at Wild Oats. You guys rock! – Linda Bonvie

My wish is for everyone to have a happy and healthy holiday season. Enjoy and cherish the time with friends and family from near and far. Take time to reflect back on the year passed and think about what you wish to accomplish in the year ahead.  Be thankful, be present, give back and … Smile – Suzanne Baker

“All you need is love!” The Beatles – Elizabeth Chatellier

A Very Southern Christmas Memory

Growing up in the bubbling stew-pot of cultures that is the Deep South, I was blessed to have two grandmothers that lived just a block apart. At Christmastime, family from what seemed to me the wide world descended on their two houses and we would commence a moveable block party of sorts–shuttling back and forth with food and between beds, mixing and matching and piecing together family parts until parents and grandparents alike could scarce tell their own from someone else’s.

It was the one time of year when our usually taut finances were loosed into a budgetary free-for-all, and excess rained. We ate like kings, sang like troubadours and moved like gypsies across backyards and front porches. It was chaotic, loud and frenetic, but filled with food, love, laughter and a kind of camaraderie that only seems born of disaster or time spent in cramped military barracks.

My aunts and cousins have since scattered. My grandmothers long passed. But this year I will travel again to coastal Mississippi for Christmas. I long to be braced by the salty Gulf air, lick my lips over pecan pie and oyster dressing and sit down with the remnant of my family.

It is not the Christmases of my youth, but there will be singing and feasting and kids piled high on outdoor pallets to watch sleepily as stars wink at them.

We will embrace the friendly ghosts of Christmas past, celebrate the ephemeral joy of Christmas present, and hope for the promise of Christmas yet to come.  Sebrina Smith

This is my wish for you: peace of mind, prosperity through the year, happiness that multiplies, health for you and yours, fun around every corner, energy to chase your dreams, joy to fill your holidays! -D.M. Dellinger

Wishing you all that and then some (perhaps even some tall, dark and handsome) this holiday season. -Aisleagh  Jackson

My Christmas wish is for people to capitalize on emptiness. Emptiness is not nothingness…emptiness is a space where we can decide what we feel about a situation, person or action. If we are in this empty space in a positive way, then everything that happens feels more positive. – Chelsea Vuciaga

May you chase your dreams till they catch you. – Karen Shepard