Dear Santa, Thanks But We’re Good

What a year it has been.

When you recap this past year, we’ve done a lot of things…

We’ve made the sourdough starter, baked the bread, tried the diet, done the workouts. We’ve done the Tic-Tok dance, done the STEM experiment, tried the knitting and conquered the gardening.

We’ve worked from home and schooled our children. We’ve seen how grey our hair really is (hard pass on witnessing that again), and learned the value of essential employees.

So, as we begin preparing for Christmas, during a pandemic, I realize we already have all the things.

When I think about what I could possibly need this year, yoga pants are top of mind, obviously…and other than being worn out from overuse, I am fully stocked in this department.

At this point, we’ve purchased everything that Amazon has to offer. We’ve honestly done enough online shopping over the course of the last months, it makes even shopping on black Friday sound appealing…maybe not that much, but close!

We’ve also cleaned and organized every nook and cranny of our houses. We’ve gone through all the closets and cabinets – plus the toy room and discovered that we have more things than we could ever need. 

We’ve realized the importance of toilet paper, and how much of it we actually go through when the entire family is home 24/7…and that goes for hand soap too.

With all of this in mind, this year in lieu of gifts, we’ve decided we’d like simpler things this year.

We’d like to snuggle with our love ones, to hug our friends and to shake the hands of strangers.

We’d like to have meetings without buffering, see the expressions on faces at church or school, and have the ability to plan…anything!!! To be able to plan something without thinking in the back of your mind that it will probably end up getting cancelled anyway.

Crowds that I truly despise suddenly sound exciting.

Coffee in the bakery, laughing with strangers while we wait in line side-by-side.

Crowded restaurants full of yule-tide-cheer, Christmas cocktails, sparkly dresses and mistletoe.

Homemade goodies, Christmas caroling and wait a second…ARE WE EVEN GOING TO BE ABLE TO SIT ON SANTA’S (your) LAP THIS YEAR!!???!?!?

#stupid2020

You see, dear Santa, what we’ve learned this year, is that what we all really need are the things that we have always taken for granted. All of the Little Things. Need, dear Santa, not want as we have requested in years past. We aren’t wishing that it could go back to normal, even though we’ve caught ourselves saying it hundreds of times over the last months; we now know what we’ve always overlooked. We know what we took for granted. We are just ready for the hugs and smiles.

Next year will be different, don’t you worry your jolly self…. We will be back! And better than ever! (And have long lists of things that we want.)

Come on 2021!

We have high hopes and big dreams for you.

Jamie Lindamood
Jamie lives outside of Eureka on a cattle ranch with her favorites...husband, Diltz, and their three kiddos, Sydney (10), Henry (8) and Charlie (6). Works at Krehbiel Architecture in Wichita and spends quite a bit of time in her hometown working, playing, and volunteering. At home in Eureka, she is overly involved too...working with the community for revitalization and always enjoys encouraging people to learn how their food really gets to their plate as an advocate of agriculture through her Day at the Ranch tour, You Are Here agriculture education program and Greenwood County Cattlewomen social media outlets.