Reflecting On The Day After Chrismas.

Christmas has came and went. I have to admit, it really is my favorite time of year. I just love the spirit of Christmas, or in my case the Winter Solstice. I think the best part about it is that no matter what your belief system is, this time of year usually brings out the best in MOST people. It's a time of giving, good cheer, and an opportunity to spend time with loved ones that we may not spend enough time with to begin with.

This Christmas I was feeling especially grateful. It was the first Christmas in awhile that the holidays weren't a financial burden. I owe a lot of that to Steemit, and of course crypto trading. It was such a great year for almost everyone in the industry. I splurged a little on gifts and it felt good watching everyone open them Christmas morning after a big breakfast.

Ironically I woke early to snow covered rooftops. We got a couple inches of snow & everything looked absolutely beautiful. I woke up a bit hungover, and incredibly early. It was around 7:30 AM, I fed the cat, and grabbed my tablet from the nightstand and checked the altcoin market like I do every morning. To my surprise a lot of coins were pumping hard. So, not being able to resist, I climbed out from beneath my warm covers, booted up the laptop, and made a few trades before starting breakfast for the family. The crypto market never sleeps! After shutting off the laptop, I decided no more trading for the rest of the day, and didn't open up an exchange till later on that evening, right before bed. I didn't even look at prices, and it felt good taking the break.

I think the highlight of the day was helping my cousin setup a Chromebook I bought for her. I decided on the Chromebook because she's not the most tech savvy person. I wasn't sure if she'd like it or not but something told me to get it for her while I was checking it out in the store. As we set it up, I showed her the PlutoTV app, and her eyes lit up as she exclaimed, "OMG, I shut off cable and I've had 3 local TV channels for the last few months. This is great I have a nice selection of TV channels to choose from again." I showed her the basics of how to use everything and I could tell she was really happy with it. Mission accomplished.

I love doing giveaways on my Twitter account and feeling in the holiday spirit of giving I did a bunch of Reddcoin, Doge, Smartcash, and Verge giveaways. They were a lot of fun, and everyone seemed to have a good time. I did some crypto trivia for prizes, a Christmas DOGE themed image contest for Dogecoin, and then some basic RT for free coins, or reply with address for coins. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I did most of the giveaways, Christmas Eve day before the family arrived for dinner, then planned on doing giveaways all day Christmas day but instead ended up setting up everyone's tech for them. Sometimes it sucks being the tech savvy person of the family :) I did enjoy setting up everyones gifts though for the most part.

I really wanted to do more giveaways on Steemit too, but only did one Dogecoin giveaway and gave away a couple Steem. @cryplectibles had donated some KittehCoin to me & I forgot to get those out. Because I didn't do as many giveaways as I wanted to Christmas Day, I'm planing on doing a bunch on New Year's Eve, & New Years Day too , so I'll get that KittehCoin out then along with some others.

After the giveaways last night, I shut down the computer and cleaned up for bed. I had poured more than a few drinks for myself throughout the day and I was pretty buzzed as I laid in bed reflecting on not only Christmas, but 2017 in general. It really was a wild year for so many people involved in the cryptocurrency space. I'll post more about 2017 in another post. As I reflected on everything though a feeling of gratitude washed over me. Grateful for the day with the family, the food we ate, the gifts we shared, my online friends on twitter & steemit, and the few I have in real life. Mostly though I was grateful for getting involved in this great crypto community and everything it has offered me and made possible.

A feeling of humility washed over me as I thought about the way the markets worked. How the rising price of bitcoin affects the price of altcoins. Or how the falling price of bitcoin can cause a rally in the altcoin market. Then I thought about the people that bought the top at close to $20,000 USD, the dropping price to around $10,000 USD, the volatility in the altcoin market as the prices continued to rise and fall, then rise again. I think it's important to realize that for every gain, there is a loss. It's simply how markets work. Somebody buys high, somebody sells low, somebody gains, and for the most part somebody has to take a loss. In the end we can only hope things work out, and some sort of a balance is achieved for the benefit of all. It may not always work out that way for everyone involved but one can hope.

Anyway, it really was a fabulous Christmas. Thank you to the entire crypto community and to everyone who has ever bought, sold, or hodled cryptocurrency! You make this all possible. Each and everyone of us has built something absolutely incredible. Chances are our efforts are history making, as we change the way global finance and the monetary system works. Each and everyone of us are taking part in the most incredible socioeconomic experiment in the history of man and I feel truly blessed and honored to be able to share in this experience with each and everyone of you. I hope you all had a wonderful hodlday season, and looking forward to what the future holds for each and everyone of us in 2018. Wishing you all prosperity & success in your future endeavors. Cheers to the holidays, and cheers to a new year!