2003

December

Christmas Past
1967

December arrived and I decided to not go to Florida for Christmas. I had just been there for Thanksgiving so I didn’t seen the need to go again for Christmas. At the time I didn’t really like spending Christmas with family because of the gift giving. In my family, if you spent Christmas with them, gifts were given and received which I always found awkward for I never knew what to get anyone. Of course it was complicated by my birthday being three days before Christmas which as I a child I always felt cheated, “Here is both your birthday and Christmas gift.” I heard many times. Like yeah, “It still is only one gift, are you too cheap or lazy to get me two”, I would think. That was if my birthday was remembered at all, with everyone being caught up in Christmas three days away, many forgot.  And then there were the times I got a gift for Julie for Christmas and she would return it to the store to get something else. There also was the traveling from Virginia to Florida, I couldn’t bring gifts for everyone, an excuse I know. I could order something and have it sent to them, my sister Brenda often did that, usually something from LL Bean, heavy winter wool socks one year which were nice in the winters of Virginia Virginia but are not so useful here in Florida. My brother David would often send me something for my birthday, sometimes something interesting, once an book on NASA autographed by Buzz Aldrin, who was the second man to step on the moon. These made me feel somewhat guilty about not getting them anything for their birthdays, but I always sent a birthday card.  Well, it’s the thought that counts, right?  In time David stopped giving interesting gifts, opting for gift cards which he would give everyone.  There were the years which Julie and I would make lists and give each other but I found that to be an illogical thing to do, and told Julie, “Instead making lists for each other, why don’t we each just get the things on the list ourselves.” So that is what we did in the later years. “What about the surprise?”, people would ask, and I would tell them there isn’t any real surprise if get one or two things on a list of six things.  Anne was grown and, on most years, would get me something for my birthday and often for Christmas. Anne always gave thoughtful gifts, rocks painted like my cats, an old-time toy tin robot because she knew I like robots although it was a reproduction. In later years I would occasionally get gifts for people, but it was more of a spontaneous thing. I might see something somewhere and think so-and-so might like that and I’ll buy it and give it to them, if their birthday was soon, I would give it to them on their birthday, otherwise just when I saw them next, but never for Christmas.

After our divorce there were fewer and fewer presents under the Christmas tree which I found depressing, so I stopped putting up a tree at all. All the Christmas decorations we used to put around the house no longer left the box in the attic. I always loved Christmas time as a child when Dad would drive us around the neighbor hood and look at all the Christmas lights on people’s houses and I always put up some as my own but now all the lights are blue. When people ask, “Why blue?” I tell them it’s because I’m always in a blue mood on my birthday and Christmas.

Rainy Christmas Even
2023

But I did enjoy Christmas in some ways, it was an extended holiday and AOL would, the day before Christmas, announce that coming into the office was optional the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. I found it was a great time to go into Washington, DC and visit the museums as there were very few tourists and this year there was something special.

Airplanes and Spaceships