Mrs. Teabody Implores You to Catch the Christmas Spirit

Tickle Your Fancy Gifts and Tea

Good Morning, Gentle Reader! Chez Teabody stands quiet enough that Mrs. Teabody can hear the Grandfather ticking away. The ebon night is punctuated with the bright glow of fairy lights strung along the railing outside  and the Christmas tree blazes away just over Mrs. Teabody's left shoulder. Within arm's reach sits a steaming cuppa Earl Grey Lavender and a good pair of  cotton socks and  soft flannel pajamas assure comfort on this chilly December 10, 2014--two weeks till Christmas Eve-- and Mrs. Teabody is taking this opportunity to urge you to find your Christmas Spirit by looking outside yourself and suggests a few ways of doing just that.

First of all, lose that hard part of your heart that harbors dark thoughts about the commercialization of Christmas by others. Don't waste a single moment of your life worrying about how anyone else is celebrating Christmas the WRONG way: the inappropriate decorations, the mis-guided focus, the over zealous consumer consumption.  Every time your thoughts wander along this critical avenue, shut them down. This is about you and how you will keep Christmas.  When the chill winds blow in February, what happy memories will you have of this Christmas 2014? It is up to you.

Second, spend time with people who are upbeat. Every year during  Christmas, Mrs. Teabody gets to spend happy times in her little emporium with uplifting people-- people who are in the mood to give some special remembrance of this Christmas to someone else. Yesterday alone Mrs.Teabody enjoyed the company of a transplanted San Diego-an, a visiting tree handler from Colorado  who dazzles Mrs. Teabody with her razor wit,  a special needs teacher who sings quietly to herself as she shops, calling out little snippets of conversation from various spots around the shop, a couple local colorful characters and a long-term nurse who always arrives buffeted by the day's event but who always finds her inner happy self before she leaves. All of these folks came into the shop for the express purpose of buying a gift for someone else and that is, of course, how it begins. Reaching out. In less than an hour's time, Mrs. Teabody will swan away with her ever-so-much-younger friend for an early morning shop and breakfast in a bright cafe--all this before TYF opens its doors. Younger friends cause one to move a little faster, dress with a little more awareness and laugh with abandon. "Get the lead out, Granny" or "Those boots AGAIN? Good Grief!" she'll say and Mrs. Teabody laughs. Laughing is hugely important  if one is to find one's Christmas Spirit. 

Never underestimate the power of spending time with an old friend, one who knows you but/and loves you anyway. Ever since Mrs. Teabody's fiftieth class reunion she has spend one day each month with four of her closest friends from that class. Lunches in restaurants, lunches in homes, sharing stories and making future plans have all enriched Mrs. Teabody's life without measure. One of those friends stopped by TYF last week in the company of her daughter-in-law and over tea there was talk of a great granddaughter's elf this year 2014, but there was also talk of those stark, impoverished, no-glitter, no-frills Christmases of the 1950's when an orange was considered a gift, when a few chocolate drops in a paper bag was a king's ransom. "We had nothing," said Mrs. Teabody,  "And yet . . . we had everything," two friends of long-standing said together, hearts full that they had  made it all those decades, hearts still in tact, still believing, still full of hope and love and  the Christmas Spirit.

Of course, the power to find the Christmas Spirit lies in you. It always has. So do whatever it takes to bring it to life. And in February when the winds blow, you want to be able to think about this Christmas 2014, pick up the phone and call up the friend/lover/daughter who helped you find it and you will say, "Thanks for helping me have the best Christmas ever! I love you."