A Christmas Carol December Tradition

It has and was always a tradition in my family that on Christmas Eve, or very very early Christmas Morning that with my father we would watch the movie," A Christmas Carol."

Now there are according to google 135 film versions of this story made, but the one we always watched was the George C. Scott version from 1984. The story was always so powerful to my father and I over the years have picked up some lessons from it, but this year it is different.

He loved it so much that the year he passed I did my Theme Dinner based on the movie that December and dressed myself up as the Ghost of Christmas Present.

My brother Aaron said years ago that his family would each December read the book, and I always loved that, he even gave me a copy for a present that year. This year I decided to do the same... I read it and also listened to the audiobook, I was finished within a day and a half, I couldn't put it down.

In hearing the narrator speak I started to fall deeply in love with the story. The powerful messages that my dad always found within its pages hit me and I haven't stopped thinking about the rich language I found so satisfying and the amazing way Dicken's could turn a phrase and have its words leave you in deep thought.

So... I have decided to start a new tradition for myself... one I will practice every December. I need to start making my own traditions, something I can look forward to each year, regardless of where or whomever I am with, something that helps me focus and have fun at the same time.

Over the next 3 weeks, I am going to start practicing the principles of the story.. here is how it is going to go....

This coming week for the Ghost of Christmas Past, through blog posts and social media, I will remember the joy, love, and magic that was shared around the holidays.

For the Present, I will focus on joy, (Emberly reminds me to always find joy), blessings, and the good that is around me and how I can bless them...

And for the Future, plan on how to find joy, more direction, and what we all need most in life... HOPE!

Below let me share some of the quotes that hit hard...

1. Every time he resolved within himself, after mature inquiry, that it was all a dream, his mind flew back again, like a strong spring released, to its first position, and presented the same problem to be worked all through, "Was it a dream or not?"

2. "There are some upon this earth of yours," returned the Spirit, "who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name; who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us."

3. "He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count 'em up: what then? The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune."

Instead of being a Scrooge may we all try to find that joy and hope of Tiny Tim.... and remember his wise and heavenly words: