Christmas Day 2008

Christmas Eve did indeed end with the “traditional” reading of “Twas the Night before Christmas”. We started this when my daughter was born and have continued ever since. Of course I missed the last two readings but was more than delighted to read the wonderful story last night. Christmas Eve is a very special evening especially through the eyes of a 10 year old and a 7 year old and there were the “visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads!” The story was complete and everyone was tucked nicely in their beds with good night kisses given; soon St. Nick would be making his appearance.

We have a rule that no one can go downstairs until 8:00 am and also part of this rule is that everyone must go downstairs at the same time. The children know this and do abide by this rule. My daughter even allows her little brother to wake her up so she can get as much sleep as possible even on Christmas morning. The key here is my daughter is allowing her little brother to enter her room and wake her up!! This cannot be understated even on Christmas morning because my daughter is not exactly the most gracious person in the morning but there is an exception just on Christmas Day.

My son made his first arrival in our bedroom at 5:15 am which is much too early for everyone so I escorted him back to his bedroom. He must have waited patiently because an hour later he made reappearance in our room where he was allowed to stay until the “rule” time. He didn’t fall back to sleep but just counted down the hours and as 8:00 am approached so did his excitement level. He did go into his sister’s room and woke her up with incident then we made our way downstairs to see if Santa made his prescribe stop.

Yes, Santa did make his stop but unlike other years most of the family room floor was visible as the presents were relegated to near the tree. There was one year where I swear the entire family room was covered with presents and it was near impossible to get around all those presents!! This year things are different especially economically but the enthusiasm was remarkable. This enthusiasm was exhibited by my son all morning from the very start. He noticed his stocking had fallen to the ground from the fireplace and as he went to pick it up a pack of Pokémon cards emerged to his delight. The words “I love Santa” emerged as the Pokémon cards were opened.

I had the video camera and recorded all the moments for posterity and yes, the whole Christmas gift opening occurred so quickly but the enthusiasm never waned. My son opened a gift which contained pajamas and he said, “Oh cool I love pajamas!” I was amazed how grateful and enthusiastic he was all morning. My daughter was much more reserved but did perk up when she opened the “Guitar Hero” box and that big smile emerged. This was the gift she was looking for and of course as things go this was the last gift opened. Upon completing the opening of the gifts my daughter disappeared upstairs to setup the Guitar Hero video game and we didn’t see much of her for the rest of the day.

Oh my goodness this was an incredible morning and I couldn’t help but to stop and think how much difference one year makes. I have no idea what will transpire for next Christmas but I do know as long as I continue in recovery these special moments will contain one at a time. It is these special moments I have coveted as I was away from my family and now that we are all back together I can stop smiling and loving every moment. Blessings, blessings and more blessings were abound and as the saying goes; “It was all good!!”

The children were upstairs after breakfasts playing with their gifts while my wife and were getting ready for Christmas dinner. We were hosting our dear friends later today and preparations were in order. I resumed my longstanding tradition of making Christmas dinner which has always consisted of lasagna. I started this tradition as a “control” measure because of my finicky eating habits and I figured as long as I was making the meal at least I could eat the meal!! Sure this is very selfish but I have provided for all those who were and are in attendance at the various meals. I was so happy to be back in the kitchen making the lasagna for the second time this year. Our dear friends’ even added some homemade ricotta cheese for the lasagna which was a very welcome addition.

The lasagna was prepared and the house tidied while we waited for our dear friends. I had to make an unscheduled trip to the only grocery store opened on Christmas day and while I was there I ran into someone I used to work with and hadn’t seen in a very long time. I barely recognized the person but after a few seconds I realized who it was. The very cool thing about this encounter was our greeting. Our greeting was a hug and I had to stop and think how far everything has come. Here is a person I had worked with and still works at the same place I wronged yet all of what I did seem to fade away as we chatted. Life is amazing in recovery and amazing things continue to happen.

I made my way home and our dear friends did arrive for dinner. The lasagna seemed to be well received and the dinner was very nice. Afterwards we played a series of games which is always fun. As we were playing it occurred to me how wonderful life really is. I spoke with several people today wishing them a very Merry Christmas and was asked how everything was and my reply was “wonderful”. I realize that life does have its ups and downs and certainly over the past few years there were many downs but now and especially in recovery there aren’t any downs and the only way to proceed is up. Today was an incredible day and I owe it all to being in recovery because I know none of this exists without recovery. Merry Christmas everyone!!!!