Another holiday season came and went and took 2011 with it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…time goes by way too fast.

With the holidays being such a prominent presence in the ever-growing chapters of our life story, you can’t help but reminisce a bit when this time of year rolls around. When quietly pondering the past while staring at the unblinking truth of the present, you never know what emotion will win out. Happy, sad, or possibly a potent cocktail of the two swirled together like a big sticky half eaten candy cane.

While I was in Lignite for Christmas I had to go out to Grandpa and Grandma Chrests’ farm to pick up a few odds and ends leftover from the almost move. Grandpa passed away a few years ago and Grandma moved to town so nobody lives at the farm anymore, but I still like to visit when I’m home.

Why visit a place where nobody lives anymore?

Sometimes you can’t remember the words to a song until you hear the music play. The farm plays the music that helps me remember some of my song. To a stranger that house may appear empty, but when I walk through it, I see layer after layer of the past unfold all around me. A past, happy and full of love and laughter.

Laughter is a constant presence in the music the farm plays for me which makes me happy but a little sad. Happy I have the memories, sad those times are gone; happy I’ve had so many wonderful people in my life, sad that some of them are gone; happy I was able to spend so much time at the farm as a child. I feel the same way and hear more of the same music when I walk by Grandpa and Grandma Ellis’ old house in Lignite.

As a child Christmas Eve was spent at Grandpa and Grandma Ellis’ and Christmas was spent out at the farm. Both families are big, loud and full of it, so there was a not so dull roar in each household as family after family shuffled in and out of the cold for their yearly helping of food, presents and laughter.

So when I was out retrieving my stuff from the almost move I could see all the cars in the driveway, all the relatives staking out their usual spot in the house, Grandpa’s laugh rising over the roar, the rickety card table where us cousins ate quickly so we could begin prodding the adults to get to the present opening.

The Chrest family gets together at the Senior Citizens Center in Lignite for Christmas now and although it’s a different place, it’s got that same familiar roar. What I wouldn’t give to hear Grandpa’s laugh rise above it one more time. I’ll put that on my list for Santa next year.

We need places and events that play our music, so we don’t forget our songs. The holidays are played out for another year but feel free to sing your song whenever the mood or that big sticky half eaten candy cane strikes you.

Happy New Year.