It's coming on Christmas...

I am sitting here at work two days before Christmas. It is warm, overcast and humid outside. It is very quiet -- most people who have leave on the books are already gone. Those of us with limited leave or, like me, an event to save my leave for are holding down the fort.
The holiday does not hold the same significance for me as it did when I was younger. I like the idea of Christmas as a time for families to get together and enjoy each other’s company, but that is not happening this year. I am not really sad about it, just a tad melancholy.
I take this time to recollect childhood Christmases: that excruciating time on Christmas morning that involved going to mass and eating breakfast before we could settle down to open gifts, the year Aunt Alice sent us all matching red pajamas, the year the soldiers from El Toro who couldn’t go home for the holidays stayed in apartment F and we went out and purchased the last tree on the lot and decorated it for them, the year Leslie presented Dad with 3 photo albums which had taken her all year to compile. It is one of the few times I remember him being overcome by a Christmas gift.
Christmases as an adult blur together a bit more, but I very clearly remember both Jen’s and Mike’s first Christmases and the year Mom broke her hip when we packed up the car and drove 400 miles to share the day with them.
This year we are spending a quiet day at home and then having dinner with good friends. As time goes on there will be new family members, grandchildren, new places and friends. I look forward to that time.
To all those who may read this, may you have a joyful holiday and let us all wish/hope/pray for peace on earth and an end to want.