Tradition

Tradition, tradition. I’m starting to feel sad about something I think might have become like a tradition. For more Christmases than not in the past decade, my immediate family (plus an exchange student from some far off country) has traveled south. South to where it’s a little warmer, but more importantly south to where Suzi’s side of the family hides from the snow. I think these feelings of sadness are spawned by more than the bitter wind blowing the sub-zero air over my hairless head. (For in some sick way, I actually enjoy the “refreshing” experience of breathing in moist air that freezes my nose hairs.) I’m gonna miss the wife’s kin, even the ones that talk funny.

About a month ago we started discussing our Christmas break plans and found out that our ever aging boys were becoming ever more committed with their involvement in their music bands. Both boys had scheduled gigs which required that they stay at home the week following Christmas. This made it a little more difficult to find the time to escape the homefront for a while. That along with the fact that we’ve been playing some musical cars these past months prompted us to forgo any plans to visit Tennessee. We hated the thought of leaving our boys behind to fend for themselves. Yet dragging everyone along without our conversion van didn’t sound real appealing either. So staying put is what we are about this Christmas 2004.

Turns out that with the holidays falling on Saturdays, the expectations of many contractors are a little different than what they have been the past few years. Most are hating to miss an entire week between Xmas and NYD and have scheduled work for most of that in-between-week. So I’m once again buried with work and trying to put a positive spin on it by realizing the boys need the hours to earn some extra cash.

But looking back over the past Christmases we’ve come to love “Tennessee Christmases,” even though (as Amy Grant says) they don’t get to see much snow on their roofs. I’ll miss being treated like a king, sleeping in late, having coffee-drinking partners, not hearing my cell phone ring, and fun heart-to-hearts around the Christmas tree.

Not that we don’t enjoy our Minnesota Christmases with the Minnesota clan, but we’ll have to request that the timman’s side be especially nice to us this year as we deal with our Tennessee Christmas withdrawal. Or is that withDRAWL?