Honestly, not too many holidays fire me up. The 4th of July and Christmas eve maybe. I know some people who get fired up about everything from Arbor day to Valentines day but most of those seem a bit commercial and mostly dumb. I can appreciate a good tree, and I’ve always loved my wife, so what the fuck. Groundhog day is also kind of cool, but mostly because I like Bill Murray Movies.
I’m looking forward to Christmas Eve. The older I get, the better it seems to me.
I remember building trampolines incorrectly in the dark in the freezing cold. Assembling bikes with Chinese instructions, when I really don’t read instructions to begin with. Not sleeping all night, because I was more excited to get my kids what they’d asked for than they were. Having a daughter wake me up at midnight, because she swore she heard Santa come already, and we were good to go (yeah, I woke us all up and folded pretty hard on that one). The day off. Family stopping by. Big baskets of whatever on the counter, from people who just wanted to reach out.
It’s just a good night. My family is getting older now, my oldest daughter is engaged to be married to a stud of a guy and things are starting to change. Really, in a good way. The others are starting to find their way in life, and its cool to see. You work at marriage and a family for a lotta years to get to this point, and I do appreciate that. Some people don’t get an un-interrupted chance chance at that, and it’s not lost on me.
Christmas eve dinner is a sacred deal at our house. Usually a ham, that green bean casserole with the crunchy onion dealios on top, our best china (with the real fancy “dixie” logo on the bottom sometimes) and the family is together and enjoying each others company. Maybe a bottle of wine with the missus. All with 24 hours of a Christmas story playing in the background (thanks TBS).
I do love Christmas Eve. I think my kids do too.
Merry Christmas to you biker pricks out there!