Holiday Miss

Well I didn't want to kick this off on a downbeat but it just worked out that way. I just finished the 20th Christmas since my mom passed away. For the most part, it doesn't really bother me. But this year was demonstrably different. I don't know why.

There wasn't anything significantly different this year. I got to spend the day at home with my wife and dogs instead of driving around the western US visiting extended family. Perhaps that lack of diversion was part of it. I was suffering with a nasty head cold that I don't usually have for Christmas so maybe that limited my distractions as well. I think that part of it was that we were just so busy this year that we didn't do much that was Christmasy either. The lights on the house didn't go up until Dec 18th. We bought our tree on the 16th but didn't decorate it until Christmas Eve. I didn't get out to do any shopping until the 24th - but had a very successful shopping excursion then. We wrapped presents on Christmas Eve and didn't put them out until Christmas morning (we didn't want to dogs to get a taste for wrapping paper.)

So there was nothing wrong with our Christmas. Nothing at all. But I'm a 41 year old man and I sure missed my mom this year.