I am sorry about your mum--I hope she is not in too much pain.

I have not decorated at all--it doesn't matter since my son cannot come home even to visit. Christmas is supposed to be about happy homecomings.

I have never felt like I truly belong to any church because I have never felt like my faith was strong enough or that I was a good enough person (too rebellious) to really fit in. Except for in my youth (our family went 3X a week), when I have attended, I don't go regularly.

But the Grinch song does make me smile and I have always loved the Charlie Brown Christmas songs. The only Christmassy things I really like are some of the Christmas shows and movies like It's a Wonderful Life, Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer, A Christmas Carol, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. If you think about it--in all those movies, the main characters also find Christmas very painful but do find joy in it somehow. Perhaps we wish to find meaning in it as well but never can? Maybe the messages in these movies have set us up for disappointment?