Home for the Holidays

Unfortunately the title of this post is misleading. I am not home for the holidays. I will be spending my first Christmas away from my family. It is a sad affair to spend Christmas in Florida without snow, without family. It would be completely unbearable, but John is here so that makes up for a lot of it. We will have lots of fun I am sure, but I still wish it would snow here. Fat chance.

I miss home though. Wisconsin is beautiful in the winter. Everyone who doesn't live there thinks that it is a wintery, frozen wasteland, but they could not be more wrong. Wisconsin could very well be the design for all the snow globes that are around this time of year. Waking up the morning after a big snow and seeing everything covered in white is just beautiful. The secret is to wake up before anyone else, and see it all untouched; no tracks, no footprints, nothing but pure clean snow everywhere. It is like a beautiful picture but better because you get to play in it. Winter nights are wonderful too. There is a smell in the air of freshness. The cold kills all the artificial garbage of the commercialized "holiday season" that big cities deal with. And all that is left is the clean smell of Merry Christmas. To walk the streets of downtown Mayville or Horicon during December is magical, if you take the time to appreciate it. All the streetlights have wreaths and garland on them and the traffic lights have lights strung across them. Main street has an ice sculpture contest and people get pretty creative with ice. People stop and talk to each other on the street. Cars drive slow, both to look at the decorations and because of the snow. Life slows down to a manageable pace at Christmas.

Drive out to my house. First, you will have a hard time because the plows never made it out that far. Second, if you do make it, you will not regret it. The front porch is wrapped in lights and wreaths. For some reason Mom has two deer made of lights on the yard. Walk through the front door, stomp the snow off your boots, and hang up your coat. The kitchen undoubtedly will be full of treats: sugar cookies, candy-canes, and Woopi-pies (if your lucky). Take a right and see the living room. The room will be different than it was the last time you were there, we never put things in the same place for Christmas, I don't know why.

The tree will be in a corner, wrapped in lights and ornaments. The old ones from the kids' first Christmas's, all the home-made ones that should be thrown away but never will be. There used to be a lot of presents under there, but now there are not so many. Presents don't matter anymore. It is the presence that fills the room. Mom and Dad have spent years filling this house with love. That, combined with Alvin and the Chipmunks singing in the background, Uncle Larry sleeping in the chair, and guests from all over crowding around, makes Christmas what it is at home. My favorite memories as a child are of the whole family sitting in the living room with only the Christmas tree lights on, listening to Nat King Cole. Dad would pull out his old Bible and read us the Christmas story. We would sit and enjoy being a family togethere. It is so strong a feeling that even hundreds of miles away, I can feel it here.

This is the first year that we are not all together. Nicole is with Eric in Iowa, very pregnant and on bedrest, John is here with me, and Mom and Dad are at home. Luckily we are all in pairs, and very shortly we will all be together. But the spirit of Christmas is not lost. Christ is still the center of Christmas and the love of a family is not hindered by miles of road between us. I will call them Christmas morning, John and I will listen to Nat King Cole and the Chipmunks, and I will eat to much good food. Even without snow or a pine tree, I will celebrate Christmas just as joyously as I do every year. I am healthy, I am happy, and so is my family. What more could I ask for?

Lately

My life has been nuts lately. We have had several inspections since I got back from school. They were difficult to say the least. People were staying over the weekend and working til all hours of the night for two weeks straight. We finished a while ago and we are getting ready for another one in the spring. The stress level is high and people are very happy to be going on holiday leave. Unfortunately for me, I got stuck with the second leave period, so I am in Florida by myself for Christmas. Matthew got first leave period and he is already back in Wisconsin enjoying the weather and his family.

I miss Wisconsin and my family a lot. The weather is still in sunny and warm like summer. It finally got cold here the last few days, and it rains a lot, so there is some precipitation, but it is not snow. And the only point of cold weather is to get snow and go sledding and such. And plus I miss my family like crazy. I have never had a Christmas away from them. I guess that comes with the territory of the Navy though. Luckily for me, John is done with finals early enough that he can come down for Christmas. I am very excited for him to come visit! Hopefully it will be nice and warm so we can go out and tear it up. It will be nice to have family in town for the holiday. It is very lonely and depressing down here without Matthew around. Plus works sucks. I am sure it will get better. But feel free to drop me a line if you are free. I assume if you read this then we are friends. No one else would read this. Hah. Talk to you later.