Gift Guides are swirling around us. As a blogger, I feel compelled to create one, but I’m going to do it a little bit differently.

“All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth…” or so goes the song. A month ago, I sang it to my daughter because her front teeth were missing. I could see a little bit of her jagged white adult teeth protruding from her gums, ever so slightly; like the tip of the surf, just as it’s about to disappear.

They are three quarters of their way out now, so she’ll be all set for the holidays, front teeth wise.

As for what will be under the tree, sure I’d love an ice face roller, this face cream, this bag, or this one. I’d love these earrings.

But what I really want is: togetherness.

Between the cocktail of flus, and COVID strains circulating; I feel like I’ve been in and out of a cold since the beginning of time. (Real time, it started in October.) Plans that I get excited about, get cancelled because someone in someone’s household inevitably gets sick. I have one friend who hasn’t seen her parents in months.

“All I want for Christmas is to see my parents,” she said to me deflated.

I hear her. I always get excited this time of year. To choose and decorate the tree. To revisit with my ornament “friends” from past Christmases. To sip some bubbly, as I stress out that my daughter will drop our most treasured and fragile decorations.

I look forward to long walks, hot chocolate and sledding. I look forward to roaring fires, awkward greetings and a lull in conversation. To cracking an inappropriate joke that moments later turns my cheeks red as I realize there are children present, but makes everyone laugh. So worth it.

I want to watch wrapping paper fly into the air, and enjoy a warm meal with family. (I don’t care if it’s take-out.) I want to see my family and friends in cozy wear, or in their fancy clothes, or in their pajamas.

Frankly, I don’t care what they are wearing. I just want to see them, in actual person.

And so, I pray on this new moon, that a tide turns, and a holiday miracle is gifted to us all; good health.

So bring on the awkward, the uncomfortable, the wrong thing said at the wrong time, the silly handmade gifts. Bring it on. I yearn for all of it.

Happy Holidays. No matter how they turn out. I wish you all health. I wish you peace. I wish you gratitude. I wish you ridiculous pajamas, spilt wine, and most of all, miss kisses that lead to accidentally kissing someone’s ear.

I wish you all of it.

Life is as fragile as an ornament, and as beautiful.

Tides come and go. So celebrate those that are revealed like starfish as the tide disappears, those that stay; through the storms.

For those who now exist within the mystery of the froth, that we can no longer see, or sit with; remember their beauty, their strength, that lifted our boat and brought us to where we are today.

Because sometimes, the best gifts of all, that keep us most warm, are our memories.

Let us create memories of togetherness, that keep us warm.

Let us treasure one another. That is my wish.