The Long-Awaited Christmas Post

"Merry Christmas and Drive Safe." -- Those were the words I was hoping to hear out of the Texas State Trooper's mouth as Graham and I were pulled over for speeding, 200 yards from our exit and less than 2 miles from our Christmas destination. Instead, Graham, who was driving my car, was issued a citation and no blessings of merriment were given by the enforcer. Instead we got a printed ticket to be paid within fifteen days of the date it was issued: Christmas Eve.
Yes. We got pulled over for speeding 8:45pm on Christmas Eve. Way to ruin Christmas Officer Bah Humbug. Actually, Officer Humbug didn't ruin Christmas. It would have been just as bad with, or without the ticket.
The first Christmas without your parents is hard. Real hard. The saving grace in the situation is that I'm blessed that my parents aren't deceased. Just 8000 miles away. Which can feel like they're permanently gone some days. Like Christmas day. I've heard a similar sentiment from a family friend whose parents went to the mission field when he was in his late 20's, early 30's. He said it felt like they had died every time they left. I can understand that now.

I tried to sleep as late as I could on Christmas day, hoping to just sleep the day away. Unfortunately, in the White house, that's not possible thanks to my darling nephew Colton whose M.O. is screaming. Loverly. Graham, both sisters and their families, and I gathered late Christmas morning and opened presents. I did my usual bit to encourage brilliance in the next generation by buying them all books. Weirdly enough, none of them have seemed to pick up on the pattern yet, but I'm sure its coming.

I have to be honest and admit that I spent Christmas day in various degrees of crying. (I said it was hard people!) However, I did dry the eyes long enough to play the Hannah Montana game with niece Rye, and she won. Apparently in that game, you have to actually know the lyrics of the Hannah Montana songs to win. So that made me the loser by more than default.

No crazy gifts were given, no gifts frantically retrieved from my mom's closet last minute, no gift-switching once the true contents were revealed. Nope, none of the usual Christmas traditions in the Brown house. It just wasn't the same.

I love my family, and my sister Sara tried really, really hard to make it a good Christmas for everyone, but next year I'm opting to spend December 25, 2009 in the Caribbean. Because a "traditional Christmas" without my parents just isn't quite right. So I'll trade the tears and sadness of this year, for sand and sun of next year.