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Holidays

Seasonal Sips to help you celebrate the holidays and to remember to make each day a special day

Toasting Good Times and Better Days: Sip 35: How Can Each Day Be a Holiday and a Memorable Day?

The course of a year includes many holidays, some shared as a nation, others through the particular faith traditions to which different people belong. You may value some more than others. Mothers Day seems to draw more attention than Fathers Day, and Memorial Day more than Veterans Day. The ways you observe special days, or not, reflect your values; some matter to us more than others, some, not at all.

There is so much more to celebrate and appreciate than what is addressed in mandated days of observance. These official days could serve as reminders to notice what they commemorate every day; to appreciate more of life’s ordinary blessings. That could increase focus on mothers and fathers. It could mean gifts of flowers, chocolate, and wine for loved ones more often. It adds mindfulness of Memorial Day and Veterans Day every day, awareness of those who have served our country and safeguarded its freedom. The Fourth of July could inspire a daily exercise in counting blessings of this country, its unique vision of rights for everyone to live in freedom and dignity, and the happiness of a society that celebrates differences.

The toast accompanying a meal is its own reminder that every day contains holiday-type elements, worth noticing and worthy of celebrating.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS FOR SIPPIN’:

How many holidays, small and large, are worthy of celebration … today?
How about creating new personal holidays, for example, Brothers Day or Sisters Day?
When, if ever, do you remind yourself, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life”?

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Toasting Good Times and Better Days: Sip 34: How Could The Holiday Spirit Be With You All Year?

Sip 34: How Could the Holiday Spirit Be with You All Year?

Thanksgiving Day is every day for those who give thanks at every opportunity. December, Christmas time, is designated for happiness, festivity, and consciousness of blessings: sharing them with each other and giving particular attention to the poor. People are more conscious between Thanksgiving and New Year’s to add a little something for those who are in need.

The challenge is to find a way to keep this frame of mind and attitude when you resume your regular life in January, after the holiday season. Whatever is worth reflecting on during a particular holiday—such as a cup of good cheer at Christmas—is also worthy of sharing throughout the year.
Wine’s history is as a beverage of consciousness. Its purpose and function, from antiquity forward, has been to help us celebrate and appreciate life.

In Christianity and Judaism, wine connects you with God. From Christian and Jewish perspectives, your gifts, talents, and resources are God-given, not for self-indulgence but for your own use and to benefit others. Embrace that, and the holiday spirit will live within you, and in your actions, every day.
Each moment is an opportunity to fill with blessing or to squander as mundane. Seasonal holidays shine festive light on how wonderful it is to bring good doings and best wishes into everyday life.

Life the way it is—with people on their better behavior primarily at designated times—does not have to remain the way of the world. In toasting the best in life, you could also reflect on changes that would make the close of the holiday season, and the start of the New Year, a real beginning, to assure that holiday blessings abound throughout the year.

One constant to apply in the coming year, and ever after, is to associate your toasts with the cup of good cheer. Recall, in those moments, that needs addressed at holiday time don’t disappear with budbreak in spring.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS FOR SIPPIN’:

1. How do you integrate values worthy of December celebrations into your everyday consciousness?

2. How do you address poverty and those in desperate straits every day, as an individual, a family, and a community?

3. How much is your toasting like the greeting, “Have a nice day,” said by rote as a societal custom, lacking thought and feeling?

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Gleaning Lessons from the Vineyard: Sip 26:How Do You Handle The Ups and Downs of Holiday Cheer?

Sip 26: How Do You Handle Ups and Downs of Holiday Cheer?

Everyone knows holiday time can be one of mixed emotions. For anyone who has suffered a loss, the joy of this time of year can be mitigated by sadness that someone is missing from the festivities. The emotional range is different for each person.

Some feel the pressure to do the holiday "right/rite" with parties and gifts, and to be of good cheer, regardless of how they are feeling, amidst the crush of crowds everywhere. The challenge is to make sure the happiness and joy of the season prevail over the stress and tension that are part of it, as well. Adding to the stress is an assumption that it is wrong to feel down during a time of designated joy.

A Lesson from the Vineyard suggests otherwise. While the California Dairy Industry advertises that California produces great cheese from "happy cows", many grape growers will tell you that great wine does not tend to come from "happy grapes". Grapes that are "stressed", having less irrigation, or growing in rocky soil, on a hillside, yield more complex fruit resulting in better wine.

And, is that not often the case for people? As much as they yearn for quieter and more relaxing moments in their lives, they are not usually times of greatest growth, (although such moments are ripe for "AH HAs"). You learn more about yourself, and your capacities, when you see what you can do, or how you function, under pressure.

Of course, just as "stressed" grapes are handled with great care, as they are rendered into fine wine, so do people benefit in supporting one another, in times of stress.

Whatever pressures or anxieties you are under, at a designated time of giving, and sharing, and joy, you can lighten the load, by remembering you are not alone in your feelings and emotions. Whatever pushing and shoving you are caught up with in the cause of trying to do the holiday right, we are in "this" together.

You just have to remember to hold onto the best of intentions, in helping to make it a season of goodness and blessing.

Reflection Questions for Sippin'

What comes to mind of personal growth and success generated during a period of stress?

What factors are involved in your experiencing "ups" and "downs" at holiday time?

How could remembering growth's "partnership" with stress be of help when you are feeling stressed?

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How Do Special Wines Enrich Your Celebration of Thanksgiving?

The Thanksgiving holiday celebrates many of the principles upon which WineSpirit is based.

An important “ritual” in preparing for the holiday is choosing an appropriate wine.

Two wines associated with Thanksgiving are the youthful Beaujolais and the rich-in-character Zinfandel. Each symbolizes important facets of what is wonderful to celebrate with this holiday. The youthful Beaujolais reminds you that, as years are reckoned for nations, our country is still very young. We are a nation blessed with youthful energy and vision to go along with the diverse ways people think, believe and live. Whatever one’s chronological age, the sip of Beaujolais and the taste of warmth and friendship that adorn the festive platters are reminders of blessings of life, life itself, and all you have for which you are grateful.

Inherent in Thanksgiving is joy for all that is wonderful about this day and all the warming memories of Thanksgiving past.

How special is the moment of opening the wine to toast this day and exchange best wishes and blessings for the world and one another. It is the start of a season of joy and thankfulness...a period in which to strive to connect with higher and nobler goals...a time to reflect on characteristics that set this country apart from others...important to remember when times are rough.

Many associate Zinfandel with Thanksgiving, not only because of how well it complements the turkey and trimmings, but also because of its unique value and character as an American wine. Although its roots may be traced to Europe, (Croatia, to be specific...with thanks to Mike Grgich) it took root here. Because of its pedigree and its taste, Zinfandel is a perfect wine to enjoy on the American holiday that celebrates both the harvest of the land and of the spirit. Sipping this wine of distinctiveness and complexity, this wine of spirit, brings out joy and celebration for the gift of life in a country built on such spirit, spice, and character.

The best of American Spirit bubbles to the surface as you raise your glasses and share deepest feelings of gratitude for all the unique ingredients and blessings that have enriched your life.

We can all be especially grateful for the blessing of this particular time for thanks giving, for stopping to reflect and celebrate, and to do so all over the land.

Reflection Questions for Sippin':

What conditions bring out your gratitude?
How does gratitude fill the spirit of your toast?
What are your most spiritual moments during the Thanksgiving Holiday (excluding football)?

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