And So That Was Christmas

BOOM. Gone.
Just like that.
I spent the six days preceding Christmas working like a pig-donkey. No time for anything but to work, get home, eat, fall asleep. Too much. Too much. Got home Christmas Eve with a sore throat. Woke up Christmas morn with a cold. Feel even worse today. And I have to work today, which nobody should have to do.
But Christmas was an oasis of peace.
We had the A-Team, the most devastating line-up, the heaviest hitters, the team you want on the field when everything is on the line - a family holiday. Craig, Karen, Keith, Emily, Eddie, Carol, Joe. You know how it works, I have described our get togethers many times. Suffice it to say the day was spent as they always are with this magnificent family; in honesty, in love, in laughter. Easy rolling, sweetly delicious and natural.
There was an odd moment during the day, sometime after breakfast and appetizers and before dinner, when it got quiet. People were dozing, not a lot of talk. I was curious. But we gathered around the dinner table and the day clicked into high gear. Absolutely fantastic.
I followed through on a promise I had made to myself and it made me happy. Loaded all our Christmas CD's onto my magical IPod machine. 5.5 hours worth of Dean Martin, Elvis, B.B. King, Johnny Cash, Mariah Carey, Willie Nelson and Diana Ross. An eclectic and delightful mix of styles and interpretations. It added to the day.
Magical moment late in the day. I had gone upstairs to visit with our cats, who were banished to the upper level by the presence of Cooper, Keith's dog, which is OK; we love Cooper too. Sitting on the top stair, patting Maka lovingly and looking down on my family, illuminated by candles and lamps. Carol teaching Karen to crochet, Keith and Craig talking and laughing animatedly, Emily curled up comfortably under a blanket. My heart filled with love, my soul with gratitude, for my luck in having this family to call my own. I will never forget that image.
Everybody gone, Carol and I settled in, the cats content again with us, and we ended the day (after a half of football) by enjoying a bizarre Christmas tradition that Carol and I dig every year courtesy of David Letterman. Carol had DVR'ed, it so it was ours to watch at our leisure. His annual Christmas show. I'm not going to explain it all, I'll just summarize it. Jay Thomas comes out every year and tells the same great story about The Lone Ranger. Then he and Letterman throw footballs at a meatball perched on top of the Christmas tree that adorns the set to see who can knock it off first. Thomas won the contest this year. The show ends with Darlene Love singing Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) with a chorus behind her and accompanied by Paul Shaffer's amazing band. Darlene rocks that tune with everything she's got and Shaffer's band are pumped and flying. It is glorious.
What a day.
And so now it is December 26. I am digging in my heals even though I know I am wasting my time. January 1 is coming and I cannot stop it or slow it down. Upon meeting The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, Scrooge says "I fear you more than any spectre I have seen." That's how I feel about January 1. Thanksgiving was pure and beautiful, Christmas was hectic and magical. January 1 is my day of reckoning, more so than any birthday in my life.
I have written endless words about how hard I have worked this year. It has been an amazingly different year for me, even though I have little to show for it.
2012 is sitting out there filled with the promises I have made to myself. Filled with hope and expectations. Challenging me to DO something with my life, as my heart and soul desire. I feel more of a let down on January 2 than I do on the day after Thanksgiving or on December 26, because the hoopla is over and reality comes flooding back, daring me to throw a pebble into the pond.
I'm going to dig this week as best I can because it is still a magical week, a holiday week, a special time. I will enjoy New Year's Eve and January 1. I will actually CELEBRATE my birthday this year; it's important to me.
And I will come out swinging on January 2, 2012.