Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET A Chilled Out Holiday Season to You! by MARGARET DICKSON I have been shopping, both out and about town and online. I have been decorating, and with a bit more effort and one or two more poinsettias, I will be finished. I have been thinking about what we might eat during our holiday celebrations, but I have not made a grocery list quite yet. And I am only slightly stressed at this point. I have not always been so cool and collected about the holidays. As a young working mother, I felt overwhelmed most of the time, and the holidays only magnified my distress. What gifts would I have for family and friends? What would Santa bring? When would I shop for all this and how would we pay for it? When would I wrap up all of it? When would we a haul out all our cherished decorations and when would we put them out? Would we do a family photograph for a Christmas card? Would we have our annual family party and what would we serve for that? I can remember weeping late one night — or early, early one morning — as I wrapped the presents the Precious Jewels would give to family and friends. That, however, was nothing compared to the year I apparently took leave of my senses altogether and allowed our house to be part of a holiday home tour despite the fact that we had three pre-school children, one a babe in arms, and a Christmas tree that took up so much space we had to move furniture out of the living room. To say I was way, way overstressed is to put it mildly. It is fair to say that when I read in a women's magazine that the death of a spouse or death of a child are the only events more stressful for American women than the holidays, I truly related. No more. I am officially mellow these days, at least for the time being. The joys of a young family are many, and I treasure our family's Christmas Eves in church, even though not every Dickson behaved perfectly. Think crayons inserted into small nostrils and tumbles into icy, outdoor fountains and you get the idea. Despite all that, I loved seeing the delight on our children's faces when they both gave and received. I loved the peaceful collapse of the week between Christmas and New Year's, when families relax and reflect about all that has happened over the holidays. I feel enormously blessed to have had the gift of a bustling, energetic and healthy family, and I know that at the end of my days I will remember those days as among the most satisfying of my life. The joys of an older family are different, calmer and more peaceful and perhaps more savored. They are certainly less stressful. Wrapping presents no longer brings me to tears, both because there are fewer of them and because some genius who must be kin to Albert Einstein has invented the handy gift bag. I no longer feel driven to bake the perfect cookie using my grandmother's recipe handed down from Austria, nor do I obsess about roasting the most fabulous turkey in the neighborhood. I may or may not make my traditional chocolate mousse, and I am fine about all of it. What is important this holiday season is that those we love spend time together at some point during the season, strengthening the bonds and building the memories that constitute shared lives. I love that giving of ourselves is more meaningful now than any package under the tree and that the Precious Jewels think so, too. Among the great pleasures of the holiday season for me has always been the cards that come in from friends and family, some on the other side of the world. I want to share this, which arrived this year from the family of a college roommate, whose family has matured along with ours. Her family writes: "Life moves on as we are met by the many joys, challenges, and sometimes losses that pass in front of us. In hindsight, and as we look forward, we have much to be thankful for: our faith, this great nation of ours, and the close ties of friends and family like you. Toward that end, we wish the very best for you as we enter 2013 together." Amen, and a safe and happy MARGARET DICKSON, Conholiday season to you and your tributing Writer, COMMENTS? family from ours. Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. Plan Your Holiday Parties Now! Pr Private Parties from 20 to 100 1304 Morganton Rd. Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm Sun: 7am-3pm Fresh Seafood Hand Cut Steaks Homemade Desserts 484-0261 Authentic Greek & Italian Cuisine ne APRIL 7-13, 2010 ys y' n ing Weekl Up & Com VOLUME 15 ISSUE 14 P WLIXOFRP OHEHDX \HWWHYLO ZZZID Cumberland County Library ary Presents The Big Read d Now e! n Onli 201 2010 m om com mingweekly.c www.upandco Fayetteville Bea You re You're Good an G Charlie C B Brown at FSU PROUDLY SPON SORED BY HEY! THIS PAPER d et Guide FUN FAMILY EDUC ATIONAL RESOURCE *HSSF REE l Focus on D d UP Up VOL. 10 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM OF CUMBERLAND & HOKE CO BELONGS TO: AY 2010 HAPPY MOTHER 'S DAY! CAMP GUIDE INS IDE! 3 Serving Fayetteville Over 50 Years! 9LHZVUZ [V THYRL[ HUK HK]LY[PZL `V\Y I\ZPULZZ ^P[O \Z Pocket Guide 5V^ VUSPUL! ^^^\WHUKJVTPUN^LLRS`JVT DECEMBER 12-18, 2012 UCW 5