When I was a kid, we’d drive two hours to Muncie, IN to spend the holidays with my family there. We did the big Christmas with my grandpa, aunts and uncles, cousins on Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve dinner was a little different than a lot of families. We ordered out for Chinese every year. At a very young age, I learned how to use chopsticks. I remember one of the first years I stubbornly tried to eat every grain of rice using those chopsticks.
Then Grandpa Tom (GPT), the aunts and uncles, Mom and Dad, all of the cousins, and my brother and I sat around in a big circle. When we were young, the kids opened presents first. Eventually, we graduated and became part of the adult’s gift exchange. We sat in that circle, going in order from either oldest to youngest, or youngest to oldest depending on GPT’s whim. There was always the figuring out of whose birthday came before whose.
Christmas morning we’d have our smaller family present-opening celebration. Santa always came, filling stockings with candy and small presents even into adulthood.
All of that stopped when I moved to Okinawa with my then Marine Corps husband. I’ve kept some of the traditions alive. I generally eat either Chinese food or sushi on Christmas Eve. The decorations get put up after Thanksgiving, just like the family used to do. Usually Mom and I still get together and celebrate some of these traditions together. I watch all of the holiday shows I watched when I was a kid (Except the California Raisin holiday special. I can’t stream it anywhere, and my laptop doesn’t have a DVD player…)
But this year, I’m alone on Christmas Eve. I had a more French-inspired dinner of bread, cheese, and fruit. I’ve definitely been watching Christmas speciasl, but the main activity today has been preparing for my Keys Bike Tour 2019! A friend and I will be riding from Key West to Fort Lauderdale starting on December 27. We leave late tomorrow.
a new frame bag to help out on this trip!
So today I’ve been making my list and checking it twice. Confirming reservations. Trying to fill in the holes that have been lingering on the itinerary.
Tomorrow I’ll pick up our rental tank (i.e. some sort of ginormous SUV) that will take us, our gear, and our bikes to Key West. We’ll be spending the night at NYAH Key West: a hostel sort of hotel with reasonable prices. We’ll roll on the first leg of our trip on 12/27.
All in all we’ll ride just shy of 200 miles over five days, meeting up with my mom on New Year’s Eve. Then we’ll take the Amtrak back to Tampa on New Year’s Day.
However you are choosing to spend these winter times, I hope you find peace, joy, and light.
My Decembers look very different than they once did. But I love the adventure I’ve chosen for this break.
Happy holidays!