The Christmas That Always Will Be

Many years before for a long while Christmas would always be held at my house. Yes my name was not on the mortgage but when we were littler we always called our house. There would be at least a month of preparation for the big night that we would struggle to host. We were always in Florida for Thanksgiving so Christmastime began in the blazing sun. My aunt would host the feast while we were down there and up in Massachusetts my grandmother would host Thanksgiving. We'd go trick-or-treating in our town and Easter would be at my aunt's house. The summer holidays at my aunt's like Easter. New Year's we've begun to go to my uncle and aunt's house. It's funny though. You don't consider the Fourth of July or Halloween; holidays. Holidays seems like a time for snow, Santa and festivity. My brother, sister-in-law, and sister-in-law's family celebrate Ramadan and my cousins celebrate Hanukkah. I'm not aware of anyone in my family who celebrates Kwanzaa. But I'm going off on a tangent. The focus of this post is Christmas.

As I was saying Christmas would always be at our house. Around two days before Christmas Eve my father, sister and I would go to pick up my grandmother in Fall River. When we finally came back from the hour ride we would get her settled in. But as I grew up I had to go to school on those days. What was the point of going to school on the 22ND and 23rd though? In 1st Grade we got out on the 20Th and now we get out 11 hours before Christmas Eve. Yes on Christmas Eve Eve. Hahaha I remember that joke always trying to get Christmas to come sooner even though it's been here for a month. The whole Christmastime. Sounds of the Seasons on Music Choice, the advent calendars and the Christmas Tree. But in our hearts we all can't wait for the morning of the 25Th. When I did get home from school though I would usually make a snow angel at the bus stop. But last-year's ice storm halted school until at least I think, correct me if I'm wrong, January 3rd? And this year a surprising car hit our bus stop hut so it just won't be the same. I do hope they rebuild it. It would be finally 3:00 December 23rd! Oh the excitement was brewing!

I would come home to my grandmother and it felt more like Christmas than the 26Th, 25Th and 24Th. My dog was covered in snow the cutest little thing the countdown calendar of 2 days until Christmas but 1 of the 3 countdowns grew mold over the 365 days and we had to bid farewell to the wood planks in the sack. I never appreciated it until it was gone. Of course you know what I mean. I appreciated everything but you appreciate it more when it's gone. It's just logical. So nighttime would come and I hope to sleep in the living room. Once we wake up from watching Drake and Josh I would dash away into the den. There would be the all famous NORAD Tracks Santa. But this year I will not be watching Drake and Josh for it has ended at least 11 months ago. When the Christmas special came on with Zigfee my friends and I would assign each other characters and I was Zigfee. Yes he was the cutest little guy. Fleeb ega quishtiv. But NORAD wasn't the same because of...yeah. But it was still just as good. My grandmother, sister and I would then make a Gingerbread house. It would be great icing even my grandma had to taste a little bit. Alas last year we got a Gingerbread tree.

Also the previous year we went to my aunt's house for Christmas. No longer our house. It was at that moment that I noticed all the traditions fading. But you know fate it has the knack of fixing the puzzle within the year. Like Dora the Explorer solving problems in 30 minutes. My sister and I listened to Viva la Vida, I'm Yours, and Livin' la Vida Loca. The first two songs were repetitive during Florida that year. Throughout the car ride I sang the entire, correct lyrics for the whole song. The first time I did that all year. My aunt had a small tree so I brought the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree to compare it. But of all the things to happen the ornament fell. All I could do was just watch. Wow. That wasn't so bad because more traditions fell into place. I helped my cousin build his LEGOs at the corner end-table with one chair, and my aunt got me a thing called Elf on the Shelf which is a tradition that succeeded. We followed NORAD in a messy room of my cousin's. And I played pool without pool ques while watching the Holiday Bowl of Notre Dame vs. Hawaii. So it turned out to be an OK Christmas Eve because we still left the cookies and milk and even though we couldn't sleep in the same room as my brother, now 25, we developed something new. I went to my sister's room and she got the floor. Aww yeah. Of course you know the feeling, not falling asleep until 2:30 and waking up at 3:00. So at 3:00 I got the stockings and woke my sister up. It'd be 3 hours until I got into my parents room and watched A Christmas Story. We opened our presents and then my uncle and grandmother came for Christmas Day Dinner. We never had breakfast. I played a college football game on the Wii from the new game and my baby cousin came over to play with the rubber duckies.

This year however we went to Florida in October which made us go to Thanksgiving at my other aunt's house and she can't handle Thanksgiving and Christmas so we have Christmas again this year. I tried hard to get new traditions and we're going back to the old, faithful traditions. It worked out for the best though...well actually my aunt's dogs: Sheila and Riley passed away so they weren't there for Thanksgiving but I still played pool without pool ques while watching a college game (Xavier). Their other dog Henry tried to attack me. So i spent the rest of the night watching Land of the Lost.

My grandmother has moved to Florida. The bus stop was left in a heap. Drake and Josh was canceled. Christmas can't stay still. NORAD is more serious. We have a gingerbread tree. It snowed in October. Mold grew on decorations. We now have Simpson advent calendars. And if we hadn't gone to Florida in October, Christmas would be back there. But I guess we're going to have to pull this together as prep has begun 25 days before Christmas. But we are going back into the same bed that we had slept in with my brother years before and all this time I thought I had stepped into a Threshold of new Christmas traditions. As Mr. Monk would say picture go backwards. As I went backwards towards the threshold door.