For better or worse, we don't know who is going to be around the Christmas tree next year. So I'll put it to you again: If you knew that everything would change next year, how would you spend Christmas?

My mother had taught me the true spirit of Christmas, maybe not consciously, but she taught us, with what most consider a tough punishment, how it felt to put someone else's needs before our own selfishness.

Perhaps now, with the economy in its current state of uncertainty, people are being forced to redefine the meaning of Christmas and how it will be honored. Unfortunately, it seems the Grinch mentality (which is founded in the fear of "not enough") still pops its little green head up at this time every year.