We all get to make personal choices on how we spend our time. That's how life works. And as we reach the crescendo of gift-giving season, TIME is the most valuable one we have to share. I will celebrate the holiday with friends, family, and anyone else I feel like. Whether any of them want to celebrate with me is a different story.

You can't know whether your family, friends or other loved ones will be here next Christmas. Time doesn't work like that. That's why time is the most valuable gift we have to give. We aren't given a lot of it. The little we are, we don't get it back if we don't use it. Or worse, waste it. So you'll have to forgive me if I think it's nuts to waste time in fear of the coronavirus.

I'm not saying you shouldn't take reasonable precautions during this, our time of the COVID. I don't fear getting into a car accident, but I still wear a seatbelt. Let me make this analogy clear: I'm referring here to people for whom it's not enough to simply refrain from driving themselves. They demand you be as scared as they are. It's not enough they don't drive. You can't either. These people have played this game for most of 2020. Now their target is the holidays. Expecting you to give up the time you come together and celebrate the most with family, saying "It's only for this year. We'll be back to normal next year."

I have three family members for whom that is, unfortunately, not true.

If anything taught me the greatest gift you can give each other is time, it's this: someone dear to me has cancer. An illness which has taken more than a few people from me. Including my dad. I know what you're thinking. "How is that possible? I thought COVID is the only ailment people get sick from." Back in the day, people got sick for all sorts of reasons. Like cancer. For this special someone in my life, it's been six years of cancer. Sure, they're mostly okay... outside of cancer. Those who know, know. "Former" cancer can be fine one week and headed to the hospital the next. Cancer is a dick like that.

Cancer, and the reality of death, make the holidays for me bittersweet. There's an unspoken effort to make the most of them because me and my family know it could be our last one together.

But enough about me. Do you remember getting a bike for Christmas? Or do remember the time spent with your dad learning to ride it? It's not the 45 seconds you spend opening tickets to a concert or a football game that ultimately matters the most. It's the event itself, the tailgating, the singing along on the train, and the time spent with your friends. It's not about opening boxes of things you could easily have bought yourself. It's the time spent with the people who matter most to you, all gathered together at the same place, for what could be the last time.

Some of you may choose to waste time with your family on the holidays this year over COVID fears. That's on you. You can give up what might be your last Christmas together because the same people who told us "fifteen days to flatten the curve" tell us nixing Christmas is the responsible thing to do. Your body, your choice, as they say. As long as you aren't lecturing me on my decisions, we don't have a beef. We don't even have much beef if you are lecturing me, but bear in mind your gift this year is a cordial invitation to smooch the butt cheek of your choice. Both are spectacular and looking forward to your lips' caress.

You're free to spend the little time you have any way you want. You can live with the regrets of that decision. But as for me, I'll spend my time WITH the people who matter most. I don't know how much time we have left. You don't know how much time we have left. And I'll be damned if your fears cost me what precious time I do have.

Have a Merry Christmas. I know I will.

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