Merry Christmas 2007

Merry Christmas!

I made my way over to the telephones so I could see how Christmas morning progressed in NJ. I spoke with my wife and was informed the children were very excited for Santa’s arrival. My son was the first one awake and I believe my daughter sent him into my wife’s room to wake her up. The gifts were quite nice as my daughter received an I-pod. It is amazing my 9 year old daughter has one already. My son received the Nintendo Wii. They were so excited with their gifts and my daughter wanted to know if Santa gave me the picture she drew for me. I told her it was still early out here and I hadn’t gone to the Christmas tree yet. I can’t wait to receive this picture because my daughter drew it freehand and according to my wife it is very good.

My mother has a saying which was passed down from her father – “Well, Christmas is over.” This is why I prefer Christmas Eve to Christmas Day because once those gifts are opened, it does feel like it is over. Here it was a little past 10:00 am on the east coast and for all intents and purposes, Christmas was indeed over. Technically, there are many hours remaining in the day and my family will be going over to my brother-in-law’s house. However, selfishly, I sort of like the fact that Christmas is over because this means I made it through another family holiday and other than missing my son and daughter’s birthdays in February, I won’t miss anything anymore. I am looking forward to the next two months going quickly.

Last year, I was unable to speak with my family on Christmas which was very frustrating. Thankfully, that frustration no longer exists and I was able to speak with them on both days.

As I was walking to breakfast, I noticed raffle tickets were being given to each inmate. I heard that there were raffle drawings all throughout the day. Obviously there is no cost to enter the drawing as our entry fee was settled sometime ago! Part of a large part of the GA Program is abstaining from gambling which is defined as “any betting or wagering for self or others, whether for money or not, no matter how slight or insignificant, where the outcome is uncertain or depends upon chance or ‘skill’ constitutes gambling.” This may seem like a broad definition, but remember it is geared towards the compulsive gambler and the emphasis is on abstinence. This is why I gave my raffle ticket to my roommate. This innocuous drawing may seem slight or insignificant, but that is the point of the whole program; abstaining from gambling. I must be vigilant in my recovery which is why I need not participate in the drawing. The drawings are a very nice gesture as the prizes do add a positive to the inmates. After all, this is prison and anything remotely close to this is extraordinarily pleasant.

I was looking forward to my friend’s visit today, but if circumstances prevented him from coming, I would completely understand. He said he would be here about 11:00 am, but I was not called. I started reading one of my Christmas presents, “The Woods” by Harlan Coben and heard my name called at 12:45. My friend did make it and when we greeted each other, he apologized for being late. This didn’t matter at all and the fact that he was here made all the difference in the world. He came armed with two grocery bags from Trader Joe’s. In the bags were much too much food. My friend brought Gardenburgers which were still hot because the visit was inside the dining hall and there was no way to prepare the burgers so he made them before he arrived. The time passed so quickly and when the announcement that visiting was over came, my dear friend remarked, “Already? Man, that was fast!” Yes, it does go by quickly and I was so grateful for this visit. He is a truly a great friend and he made my Christmas very special.

Christmas dinner was over and bingo would be played for the biggest prizes of the day. My friends and I decided to play “Risk” since I really couldn’t play Bingo. I have never played Risk before nor had my roommate but one friend had. My roommate and I were setting up the game because the box had never been opened. We had to figure out how to play but were a few degrees short of patient. We were about to give up when my other friend came in and told us how to play. The game started and it is a bit complex. I started to understand but my roommate quickly lost interest. I have no idea how long that game usually lasts as we played for two hours with no end in sight. We decided to call it a night with the outcome undetermined. In those two hours there were good laughs and friendship. I t was a fitting way to spend Christmas evening in prison.