Happy Holidays

Soon I will be heading back up north for the holidays. Then the shuffling between houses will begin. Won't be too bad this year since my stepmom will be coming to us this year.

Christmas is always fun and interesting. My brother will offer me a beer as soon as I get in the door (I will accept). On the 24th my brother and I will head off to the grocery store to get the things my sister-in-law forgot. Or we will go to Target (oh, how I miss Target; y'all I have to drive an hour to get to a damn Target) so my brother can buy Christmas presents. We refer to the Christmas Eve Day trips to various stores as our "brother-sister bonding time." We've been doing it for years.

Christmas Eve is pretty casual in our family. We eat chili and oyster stew. The kids get antsy and want nothing more than to open presents, of course. We finally move into the living room and mass paper ripping commences. Someone (a kid, of course) cries for various reasons.

My brother and I drink some more and do whatever we need to do to get the toys set up. That's our other tradition: Getting liquored up and putting the toys together. One year I put the mountain on the Thomas the Tank Engine train table together backwards.

Christmas morning involves more paper ripping and lots of excitement. And breakfast.

Normally we would go to my dad's at some point. Or meet him somewhere. We won't be heading up there this year. Last year at Christmas is when I found out about the chest pains, erratic pulse, and shortness of breath Dad had been having. Last year is when I realized he wouldn't live through the year. And he didn't.

On a fairly personal note, this Christmas is a form of closure for me. This is when it started last year. This is where it will end this year. I normally don't see New Years as that big of a deal. It never has been. Anniversaries of other events are more important to me than New Years. But this year I see New Years and Christmas as a starting over point. A time to say goodbye to a year that was both great and absolutely horrific. It's a chance to start over. And right now, that is all I want. I am looking forward to both. Very much.

I didn't mean to end on a sad note. I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas, had a Happy Hanukkah, or a happy whatever you want it to be.