Day One

I thought I'd try doing some Christmas posts this month. A little of the ole red and green. I can't promise I'll hit everyday, but I'll try to hit most. No real structure, no concrete point. I'll probably get political, religious, nostalgic, sexual, and, as always, honest. I was kidding with the sexual, although ... I can't rule it out. There's a reason to keep reading ...

I remember the pajamas I wore, as a boy. They were thin and light blue, with long sleeves and pant legs, a navy blue band at the collar and wrists. He-man themed, Skeletor specifically, which would make sense with the color scheme. (Skeletor's skin was a light blue and his attire was dark blue or purple.) I remember how loose they were on my legs and how they ended just before my wrists and ankles. Back then I had silver caps on my front teeth and sandy blond hair.

That year I got Castle Grayskull to play with. Another year, maybe in red footsie pajamas, was when I ran downstairs before everyone and opened what seemed to be ALL of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures. We did the Santa presents in the morning and the family presents later. My parents got me and my sister simple, wooden toys one year and I remember it was very disappointing. My grandma got me a foam burger that was really weird. My dad's sister and her husband got me sports stuff every year; I've never been into sports. But they got me the Lifesaver's "book" every year, too, which was cool.

I have other memories, too. A lit up Christmas tree in the darkened living room that always means home. Getting to drink real Coca-Cola just one time a year. Santa leaving his hat in the kitchen. The white porcelain Noel figures that sat on the piano. The Christmas eve trips to visit grandma in the nursing home and the call we got returning home, the first and last year we didn't go. A party at my aunt's at which, I recognize now, my mother got very drunk and very sick.

Traditions change. The family contracts in on itself and expands in other directions. We don't visit my dad's sister or my aunt like we used to. Grandparents have all passed. But my sister has a family now and we coordinate the gatherings around that. And I don't live at home anymore either, so the "we" of which I speak isn't really that much of one. Rather than being the group visiting or being visited, we visit with each other now.

I live alone with my two cats and a tarantula. I've started putting up a tree, which I think will go in the bedroom this year, so the newer cat can't get up and knock down the ornaments. I'll put lights on it so when I'm snuggled in bed, in a t-shirt and ragged gray pajama pants, I can close my eyes and feel at home.