Here Comes Christmas December 20, 2008
Posted by lizp4 in Uncategorized.trackback
Oh, jinkies! It’s Christmas time! For those of you who say Christmases are always the same, may I only reply, “I envy you!”
Our first Christmas in Wasilla was brown. It came on the heels of some record heat (“hot” to an Alaskan is around 80 F. Except in Fairbanks, where it really gets HOT, like in the 90s, to balance out its minus 50 winters) which we got to enjoy for a few weeks after arriving. The next Christmas was snowy, and bitterly cold, down into the -20′s. This one, so far, is promising to be a mild, snowy version. We already have a foot of snow on the level. For Wasilla, that’s pretty good. For Valdez, on the other hand, it’s baby stuff. Valdez regularly “enjoys” winters with fifty feet of snowfall.
But, I digress. This year is different because we have to celebrate it early. The daddy of the clan has been called back to work, and will leave on Monday, and will be there for two weeks, so we are going to have Christmas before he goes. Of course, some things just can’t be re-scheduled, so there will be another celebration on Christmas day. The kids should love that.
it’s hard to believe that St. Nicholas has already visited the parish and talked with the children. We will celebrate the Liturgy of the Vigil of the Nativity on Christmas Eve. Then, Father, that lucky guy, will get to drive back to Anchorage to celebrate it once more, at a more traditional hour (closer to midnight) for the main parish there. And, once again, it will be all over, and the letdown will set in. The kids will have most of their gifts destroyed or mangled, the grownups will be casting rueful looks at the bathroom scales, and where before, we were dreading putting up the tree and decorating, now we are confronted with taking it all back down and putting it away for another year. And, the routine will settle back to “normal.”
But, next year, Christmas will be just as different as it was this year. And we will all prepare, celebrate, and enjoy it just as much as we ever did. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
That’s the way I felt too! it was fun, and the kids were hollering “Sweet!” every few seconds, so I guess that means they liked what they got, even though Daniel was a sick little thing, and had to be grossly medicated to get him to the point where he could actually enjoy his gifts. He’s still puny today, but is on the mend. We will be having more Christmas on the real day, too. should be great fun. Merry Christmas, She and Eeyore…!
For me, that’s saying that I’m just as unprepared as I ever was! I never believe it’s on the way until the tree is up and decorated and this year that was very late…gotta go wrap..and wrap..and wrap…