First Christmas
Sorry this is not some warm, melt your heart story about Christ first appearing on this planet. This is about the first family Christmas we here in cold Saskatchewan had today with my parents because some babies in sunny bc didn't want to travel to snowy Saskatchewan to be with their parents at Christmas so they stole mine for the holidays, making us left here to have our Christmas early. This whole last sentence should be read with a slight whine in your voice and a small sneer on your upper lip on the right side. Go ahead read it again and I will wait. Done? Good, then here is the rest. My parents are going to spend Christmas in BC this year with what has become the majority of the family. If we take Abe ( he is closer to Saskatoon then Victoria) then we are in a deadlock. So today we had Christmas with them here and on Monday they fly to BC. Chris and I talked about it on the way home and it didn't seem much like Christmas. Mom and Dad handed out their gifts and we gave them ours, but other than the turkey dinner it was lacking somehow. We didn't play balderdash, we didn't play steal the present game and we didn't play Knipsdash. But the biggest thing I think was that there were only 21 people in total in the hall. How I would love it if just once more we could all be together for Christmas. All my brothers and sisters, their kids and their kids. Someone with better math skills can add that up and let me know how many people that is, but I am not doing it tonight. I somehow don't think it will ever happen again. We have become so big that we will never be able to get that many people together again on the same day. It was still good. I got to show off only one of my grandson's, I ate to much and drank to much coffee. I also heard a really good Christmas joke that I will share here someday soon. I got to visit with some of my younger nephews and neices, which is scary in a way cause that means I am just getting older. If all this meandering doesn't make a lot of sense, you should see all these thoughts in my head, all trying to get out with the intention of being put down on paper, so to speak, and they all want to be first, cause they know that if they are not near the front I will forget some of the last ones and they will never get out. Forever to roam aimlessly in the caverns of my mind and blocked from ever escaping by songs like, All for the love of Sunshine by Hank Williams Jr or any number of songs that pop into the forefront of my mind simply by mentioning a word or phrase. See now I don't know where I was anymore, even though at the start of this blog I had it all nicely laid out in my mind. Oh well. To all the family that I won't see this Christmas I pray that you will have a truly wonderful time. I pray that you will all be safe in your travels. To those like Mel way down there in the States who is sharing her first Christmas with her new hubby Peter and his family a special blessing on you. I pray that you will have a joyous time and really become a member of that family. And don't miss your Mom and Dad to much. And to all you thieving family down on the island, enjoy your Christmas very much. I hope you all eat to much and put on at least 5lbs over the holidays. I got to go to bed. goodnight
posted by John at 10:42 PM
8 Comments:
I am so sorry for all you frozen Saskatchewanites. We do miss you all and wish you a very happy and blessed Christmas. I am also very happy that you could celebrate Christmas with Mom and Dad before they come here to warmer BC. It isn't all that warm right now, but by Christmas we are suposed to have highs of +7 and lows of +2. :-) We will think of you at our gathering on the 23rd. WE will be playing knips-dash, Barderdash, and we will play the steal the present game. That's it, John. I think you should pack up yuor family and come here for Christmas. By the way, the total number of people in our family is 70 including Mom and Dad. What a gathering that would be. I agree with you. I don't think that will ever happen either. Can you imagine the noise that such a group could make. I've seen churches with smaller congregations than that. I pray that we will all be at the most important gathering of our future.
You know, since starting this blogging thing, I miss all of you even more than I did last Christmas, and that was my first Christmas away from Saskatchewan. I have never seen Noah in person and I miss him. He is such a carbon copy of his Daddy. I have never seen Chloe, Camry, or Tara's little boy Adam. Now look what you've done. I'm sitting here with tears flooding my eyes and I can barely see to type. Tell everyone there that we wish you all a wonderful holiday. Take lots of pictures and post them on your blog. Love and best wishes for Christmas. OK. Now I need a coffee.
This is your thieving sister from sunny BC and I don't even feel at all guilty. I am just happy that FINALLY after all of these CHristmas's in bitter cold Saskatchewan, my whining family back there are letting me have my parents for once since it's been many years since I have been with them. (and I sure don't need to hear that it's all my fault cause I moved away.) Yes I did and I have not said a word about these lonely Christmas's. So there.
My humble thanks to you all for being gracious enough,(albeit with quite a whine in your voice)to allow mom and dad to come out here. I look at the videos we have of those Christmas's long ago and it's so wonderful to see all these little kids and the hair styles!!WOW. Everyone's wearing these massive glasses and it's just always good for a laugh and maybe a cry. It's sad to think those days are gone but I do think it would be wonderful to try to get us all together one more time. Maybe for dad's 80th or at least this coming summer. By then Robyn and baby could travel and since most of our kids work for Ken we could arrange something I'm sure. And I would even be willing to travel there. I'm not giving up on us being together at least one more time while mom and dad are still here. I don't mean to sound morbid but I would hate for us to all make the effort for a funeral instead of something that could be so much more appreciated. Just my thoughts.
I agree with you both that it would sure be nice to have everyone together for one more bit bash. I will talk to Susan over the holidays and we will start thinking about having a birthday party for Dad this summer. Your right Mitz, lets do it now before we do it for a funeral. Gross thought.
Uncle John, I have gotten through almost everyone's sappy Christmas blogs, without crying, and now this...sniff... I have to go to work. Thank you for the Christmas wishes, they really mean a lot to me. If you throw a big bash for Grandpa, we'll be there, promise. I miss you all so stinkin much...now I'm going to go deal with all my angry work e mails, and I'm feeling fragile and am crying... argh. I love you uncle John.
What???....no one blogging anymore? Come on people!!
Hello there! We've been having fun "seeing" you online from here in Taiwan, and hope the rest of your holidays are going well. We're having a great time here; this will probably be our last Christmas together for a while, so we're making the most of it. :) Merry Christmas, and God bless!
Ok John,
I've been checking your blog every day expecting to read something new. I have come to the conclusion that you are very busy playing with your grandsons. Enjoy, but don't forget about all of us who "stole" your parents away for Christmas. We hunger for news.
yeah, i just took a break from my hundreds of e mails and nothing?! please! I'm in a blogger void with nothing new to read!!!
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