My love/hate relationship with Christmas.

[bdex75]

As Christmas Eve comes to a close in the Eastern time zone in the US and we begin the preparations for the Christmas Day festivities I often find myself sitting on the couch as the kids watch Christmas movies in the den and my wife frantically tries to find all of the hidden gifts to wrap. (The ones that get discovered in June are always a bonus!!).

While I love the hustle and bustle of Christmas the busy shopping malls, the hectic travel plans to see as many family members as we can possibly see while I take a few days off of work. I always find myself thinking about the one family member in particular that we are missing. We spent every Christmas Eve with my mom, including her last in 2000. We drive the 3 hours to their house on Christmas Eve morning, had a great meal and exchanged gifts and stayed long into the evening knowing it would probably be our last Christmas together, for now. We left their house about midnight and drove the 3 hours home.

About 6:30 on Christmas morning we got the call that she had passed away. About 3 years prior we found out she had stage 3 breast cancer 2 weeks before our wedding. She waited to have surgery/chemo/radiation until after the wedding. Eventually the cancer went into remission and we had a couple good years. And then it came back with a vengeance. I was 22 when I got married and we decided to wait a couple years to have kids to travel and make sure we were financially ready. (By the way, if you are reading this and you are 22, you will never be financially ready for kids 😁).

I had always hoped that my mom would be able to see her grandchildren and to be honest we were blessed to even be able to have kids. Though I always second guessed our decision to wait. Our son was born 2002 and our daughter in 2003. They brought the joy and excitement back to Christmas. As they are now teenagers and no longer "believe" in Santa Claus some of the excitement has diminished. But we still enjoy the season.

Every year we now have a tradition to go to a nice dinner on Christmas Eve. Usually with some combination of friends at a nicer franchise type steak restaurant. This year we find ourselves in a new area (Indianapolis) and having no family or long term friends in the area for the first time it was just the four of us.

So as we all hopefully take some time to spend with friends and family this Christmas remember to enjoy it because you never know when it may be your last. Enjoy good food and good wine and each others company. And if you happen to be in the Indy area St. Elmo's does a fantastic job.

Merry Christmas and may God bless everyone this holiday season and in 2016!!


The Dexters.




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