“Dear Santa, please bring me a positive Christmas, a happy New Year and a wonderful Thanksgiving.”

Yes, I am asking for happy holidays on my Christmas list.

The last few months appeared pretty negative. Our law enforcement continues tackling gang issues. We survived a tough prosecutor election. We wait on a slowly rebuilding economy as Boeing left our state. And, now we brace for higher taxes being sought by clueless election officials in the new year.

It could be enough to turn anyone into a Scrooge.

Despite all of the excuses to have a poor attitude, I am going to resist. Allowing myself to be brought down, means I would be creating misery or adding to it for my family, friends and coworkers. It doesn’t fit into my view on what the holidays mean.

Thanksgiving is pretty easy. Give thanks for things and people you appreciate in your life. OK. I love my wife. I have great in-laws. My parents still make me laugh. I have such great friends, I would label them as addictive. My coworkers make my job a real pleasure. They are great. I am thankful to have a job, a home and one odd cat. And, I am very appreciative to be able to compete in a martial art at my age and in my shape.

Christmas is always magical. Celebrating Christ and his message makes December a great time. Yes, we also have snow, Christmas lights, another family dinner to share and it gives us a chance to enjoy the pleasure of giving tokens of my affection to family and friends. It seems like a time when everyone relaxes just a little and are a little quicker to be friendly. I enjoy how tolerant and giving people strive to be during the Christmas season.

Then comes the New Year. I never really saw the holiday as much more than an excuse to attend a party, drink and kiss a beautiful woman (my wife) at midnight. When we lived in rural Japan for two years, I saw another version. It is the biggest holiday of the year for the Japanese and it includes sending cards, like we do for Christmas. But the New Year was also holy. The two main religions of Japan celebrated the New Year as a chance to start over, make the next year of your life better, wish others luck in their endeavors. It is similar to our custom of New Year’s resolutions, but on a bigger more reflective scale.

This New Year I am going to take some time to think about how to improve my life in 2010. How can I make it more positive? What will I need to focus on? At the same time, I plan to reflect on who and what made 2009 a good year and search for ways to keep those aspects intact.

Three holidays. Three chances to dwell on what makes my life good and to begin thinking of how to make the next chapter better. Even with minimal success, I will consider this winter to have been happy holidays.

Enjoy Thanksgiving. Have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Bill Stevenson is the Columbia Basin Herald managing editor. We agree and hope to all have happy holidays.