Christmas Memories

Christmas was Jim's favorite holiday (Halloween took a close second while growing up) and he was deeply missed today as we celebrated. I had some time this morning to remember some of the many Christmas's that I spent with Jim and could easily remember the excitement of Christmas morning. Jim was a true believer. When he asked as was told about Santa, he refused to believe truth and prefered to continue on with the Santa tradition. I, on the other hand, didn't care as long as I still got presents!

Jim and I would wake up on Christmas morning and like all kids would be so excited. We would wake our parents... who were very slow to get up. Many years I remember we had to wait at the top of the stairs while our parents when down and got things ready. My dad had to make a fire, maybe prepare a little breakfast... basically torture us for a while. When we were finally told we could come down we raced down as fast as we could.

I have been told that when Jim was little he was the slowest unwrapper out there. He would open a present and then have to have take it out of the box and play with it for a while... he was satisfied that he got something he liked and just wanted to play with it, forgetting he had more to open. That changed, of course, as he got older. I remember many times ripping through our presents as fast as we could. Jim would always be very excited with almost everything he got, with the exception of the clothes that always seemed to end up under the tree! After presents we always did stockings last.

For at least one year, maybe more, I remember Jim going to the extreme of setting his alarm clock so that he would wake up right at the time that we were told it was okay to wake our parents. The only problem was that my dad went in and turned off his alarm after he was asleep!

As we got older we also starting the tradition of having some close family friends over for dinner on Christmas day. By then Jim and I would have all of our new things lined up and ready to show them, careful to make sure that we showed them everything.

Today I spend the day at my mom's with some family friends and we had a very nice time. While Jim wasn't always home at Christmas time he was still very much missed today. This is a rough time of year, as I am sure that it is for anyone who has lost someone they love. For us it is compounded by the fact that Jim's birthday is fast approaching. This year we will spend Jim's birthday surrounded by his many friends in Las Vegas. It is a trip that we are very much looking forward to and one that we very much wish that we weren't making under these circumstances.

I love you Jim, Merry Christmas.