The holidays were very low-key for me and HH this year. We noticed many people were keeping their celebration fairly scaled-down with fewer extravagant gifts, and those aimed mostly at the children in our lives. I disagree with people who claim Christmas is for the kids only. This holiday season is for all of us to enjoy and appreciate what we have and if that means sending a token of our esteem like a hand-knit scarf or a plate of sugar cookies shaped like snowmen, then great. I think the presence of children make us remember the holiday; they remind us to express our love and joy when we might otherwise just hole up in our houses.
This year I have been solely focused on writing - and when I’m not writing, I’m thinking about writing. So the celebration part of the holiday kind of got away from me. We had but one string of lights in the window and a tiny fake tree with one ornament on the coffee table. We did enjoy time with friends and for that I am grateful but we didn’t do much gift exchanging. Maybe you kept things low-key like that too.
So before the year ends, I’d like to give my friends a gift of memory. I have some old friends, people I’ve known for years, which in itself is a major accomplishment for me, seeing as how I have moved and replaced people in my life so often. I plan to send each of them an email with a single memory of when we first met: words they spoke, a joke they told, an impression I had of them. And I hope this recalls for them a time in their lives when we were perhaps less encumbered by responsibility - or simply younger. And I will send a link to this blog post so they understand why I am doing it. They will know how much I appreciate their friendship.
You’re welcome to do this too. I don’t mind. And maybe if you’re an old friend of mine, you’ll want to send me a memory too. I’d like that a lot.
Your Hollywood connection,
Leigh
