I Read Too Much

I'm sure there are thousands of bloggers world wide anxiously tapping away at their keyboards trying to put to word the joys, pains, lessons, and sorrows that 2011 held.  It is now 8:45 on the 31st, less than 16 hours until that infamous ball drops and all the country, or at least this time zone, will sing Auld Lang Syne and kiss the appropriate person next to them firmly on the lips.  It warms my heart to think of the promises the new year can and will hold, but also saddens me to know that another year is being closed and that the tome will be be placed forevermore in the memory banks of those who wrote it's pages.  This year saw many things for my family as well as for me, these include: 1. The start of this blog 2. My mad quest to read 150 books 3. My children all celebrating another year 4. The loss of our family dog, Dorothy 5. My youngest starting pre-school 6. My oldest starting her last year of Elementary school 7. A trip of a lifetime to Israel 8....

I got to thinking about traditions the other day.  What constitutes a tradition?  Is it something that has to have happened for so long that you don't remember when, or even where, it started?  Is it something that you did several years back, a few years back, and then again just recently?  Is it something you decided one day, just a couple of weeks ago, that you are going to start doing?  I ask because it seems that in the scheme of things there are as many traditions as there are people of the world and also just as many that have no traditions at all, and that, in itself, is the tradition. Regardless of how they are born, be it recent or older than Christmas itself, I think there is something almost as magical in a tradition as there is in the season as a whole. When our first daughter was born in 2002 I knew that I wanted to make everything special, especially the holidays.  I'm sure that I am not the only parent in the world ...

and sometimes, that really is enough.  There was a time, in the not so distant past, that I would cringe whenever someone said that line to me.  Not because I hated what it implied, but more from  not fully understanding what it meant.  Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I have had a profound epiphany on the quote, but rather that I am now, at this point, in complete accordance with the flippancy that is holds.  Why this; why now?  Perhaps, nay, not perhaps, it is all due to coming to that place when I really don't mind what a certain set of people think.  Yes, I think my demeanor holds that same amount of flippancy. So, I ask of you, have you ever reached out, offered something, anything, to someone but got exactly what you didn't expect in return?  And by that I don't mean more than what you expected, but rather less, much less.  There is a chance that I have high expectations for others; which, wouldn't be a hard concept ...