Seriously, don’t you just LOVE December! It really is like the Friday of the months…the month you look forward to all year and you relish it, wishing it wouldn’t have to end. It just seems like we spend more time with family and friends just being HAPPY during December, and it is so nice! December makes me happy 🙂
At this time of year I am especially reminded just how fortunate I am to live in the neighborhood that I do. It is full of amazing people who really watch out and care for each other. It’s one of those neighborhoods where the kids play together outside in the summertime, we hold a neighborhood parade and breakfast for Fourth of July, couples take walks together on Sunday afternoons and chat with each other on the sidewalks, and we have a big neighborhood Christmas party every year. This weekend my husband and I hosted our neighborhood annual Christmas Party at our home. It was so much fun to have all of our neighbors come over and get to visit with them. Even though we live right by each other we get so caught up being busy that we don’t take nearly enough time to stop and just enjoy spending time with each other, which made this last weekend especially nice. We had so much fun!
It made me and my husband realize that we need to carve out more time to host gatherings for our neighbors to do fun things. I think we are going to try and start having a monthly game night where we will invite different small groups of neighbors over to eat food and play games and just get to know each other better. It’s the kind of thing where if you don’t carve out time to make it happen and schedule it on your calendar, it will never actually happen, so I decided to make it a goal for the coming year to do at least one of these neighborhood gatherings each month.
It’s easy to lose sight of just how incredible a neighborhood community can be, so it’s important to dedicate time toward building those friendships more. And what better time of year is there than this to reach out to your own neighbors and start creating friendships there. Christmas and the holidays this month give you the perfect reason to randomly reach out to your neighbors without feeling awkward doing it. Step outside your front door and take some cookies over, or leave a nice note, or go sing carols at their front door. Just do something to build the relationships with the people who live near you. They can become the closest thing you will have to family in your life if you dedicate the time to build those relationships, and best of all they are just a few steps away when you need them!
Have an amazing start to this new week. It’s only two and half weeks until Christmas so get out there and wish your neighbors a Happy Holiday!
And to all of my neighbors: “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and thank you for being our friends and for making our lives better by being a part of them. We love you all!”
~Amy
