"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love." Hamilton Wright Mable

Theresa-Venus and I have given each other the same Christmas gift for the past two years – our gift to each other is – NO GIFT. At this stage of our lives, we have enough stuff (actually more than enough, which led to my hormonal hissy fit recently – see blog entry dated Nov. 20, 2008). What we really wish to celebrate is our love and friendship. With this in mind, we carve out time to spend together.

Tomorrow, we are going cross country skiing (we were going golfing in the lowlands, but even they have lots of snow.) So on to Plan B. After our ski adventure, which probably won’t be super long considering my current level of fitness, we’ll hunker down with popcorn in our sweats to watch a movie. Dinner will be a scrounge the fridge affair.

No rushing around preparing a ‘great’ dinner, exhausting ourselves. No wrapping, bowing, tagging, or delivering. No concerting, shopping, or organizing. Just hanging out with family.

Yep, girlfriends are family. The holidays remind us of the importance of connecting with our families – family of choice as well as family of origin. Maybe one day, if we keep practicing love, we’ll be able to expand our "family of choice" to include all of humanity. Here’s wishing all of us Peace on Earth and joyfilled holiday time all year long.

(For more menopause and midlife wisdom from our Venus community, click below to order The Big M – and don’t forget our girlfriend’s special – buy one at full price and get the second at half price! Merry Christmas! the Big M