The many days of Christmas

I know that I made a commitment to write something here every week, but then again, very little has happened since I left Philmont. Essentially, I got home and settled into a routine of reading, writing and playing video games. Exciting, I know.

One of the major problems of leading such a boring life is that you tend to be entirely unprepared when excitement does happen. At thanksgiving I found myself wandering to less occupied rooms because I didn't know how to respond to people when they spoke to me and I kept trying to listen to every conversation at once. When Gregory, Donna, and Brian came down for Christmas I was a little better prepared, partly because the kind of dynamic brothers have never really changes.

So what went on that week? It's a little hazy for me, mostly because I don't really feel like I've gotten a full night's sleep in the past week. We picked Gregory and Donna up at the airport on Monday morning and went directly to Mexico Viejo. After that, everything kind of blends. We had two other trips to Viejo, I know that much.

Do you remember when you were a kid and couldn't figure out what to get people for Christmas? It was a lot easier than it is when you're an adult. Your parents just tell you what to do. Sometimes you buy somebody candy, sometimes you make them a craft, and every once in a while you would make a little booklet of coupons. You know the type: "good for one day of housework". When I was maybe ten, my brothers and I each gave those to our grandfather to the tune of five coupons each for a day of yard work. What no one could possibly have predicted is that he neither used them nor did he throw them away. He kept them, and twenty years later, he's using them now. We went down to Granddad's house to clean up the yard so that he could have his house tented, and sure enough, at the end of the day when we were all hanging around his living room drinking vinegar masquerading as wine, he gave us each a green, construction paper coupon. Our dad warned us to take them with us, otherwise he would pick them up and use them again.

What is Christmas, really? Bad question; it opens the door to all kinds of theological debate about the birth of Christ, contradictory biblical accounts of the time and place of His birth, and eventually talk about pagan Solstice rites (Just for the record, you don't need to know exactly when He was born to celebrate the birth of your savior). Putting that aside, if you take the cultural meaning of Christmas as a universal time of celebration and togetherness, then for me Christmas really began when my brothers arrived and culminated in Christmas Eve, when my entire family gathered at Uncle Steve's house. There is a power in being surrounded by family that can't be compared to anything else. To be around people who you love and who love you no matter what, the people that have known you since you were born and before you were born, the people who have become your family, through marriage like Josh and Beth, or just by being there like Gene and Carol; it's amazing. As is often the case, cousin Mark and his family couldn't be there and was missed, but all things are forgivable. After all, we're family.

My good friend Cat recently noted that the famous twelve days of Christmas actually begin on Christmas Day and continue until the coming of the wise men (tomorrow). To be wise is to possess wisdom, and Plato defines wisdom as the love of knowledge. I can think of no one who knows me and revels in such knowledge more than Jon, Sara, Jake, Justin and Jessie. No sooner had my brothers left than I was packing for our journey across the great desert of eastern California and Arizona, the three of us traveling from afar to visit a family clustered around one precious baby. Granted, Kaylie is a girl and a bit mischievous (not to mention almost two), and we were traveling east instead of west, but it made a hell of a transition.

Jessie has often wondered what it is that makes these trips so amazing. The answer is: nothing. Okay, that sounds bad, but it is technically correct. We don't plan anything, we don't try to fit things into a schedule, we just get together and be ourselves. We always play video games together and watch a couple of movies. This time around we went out to see some Christmas lights at the temple and went mini-golfing. That's it. Let's face it, how many people go on vacation and never take the opportunity to relax? How many people have less fun looking at mountains, waterfalls and castles than we did watching Sara discover Sims Castaway? We watched the new year's ball fall right after we finished watching Star Trek. That's a good way to spend the new year.

So now I'm back and sitting at my computer again. One of my stories has advanced to level three with a publishing company, for whatever that's worth. There is one strange and confusing aspect going on though: Grandma's not here. It's pretty easy to notice, since she inhabits only three rooms of the house. There's no note from my parents, so I really have no idea what's going on, but I assume it's nothing too serious. I have to, or this is going to be a rough day.