Christmas Solo

It is hard to believe that Christmas is just a week away!

This will be the first Christmas, in a long time, where it will be just the two of us. Our kids all have other plans due to distance, schedules, traditions and job connections. Who knows ... we may have reached the pivotal point in our life now, where the kids will continue to develop their own traditions and, we oldsters, will be invited, one of three directions, until we no longer celebrate Christmas. Who knows?

This Christmas will be a quiet Christmas. We haven't made any plans so don't even know if we'll cook our own small Christmas dinner or go out.

Go out?

Will anything be open, besides the truck stop, for a Christmas celebration?

I remember a Christmas, in 1997, where my son and I and a couple of friends, took a drive to Estes Park, CO to enjoy an unusually warm holiday in the Colorado Rockies. I so love the mountains! Mountains are so awesome and majestic compared to the sandhills of my home state, Nebraska.

That Christmas, no one wanted to cook. I was so sure we'd find a restaurant serving a Christmas meal on the way up or even in the mountains and, for sure, some where in Estes Park. So, you can imagine my disappointment when we found NOTHING open! The drive was breath takingly beautiful and our Christmas dinner of Twinkies, a bag of nuts, some beef jerky and soda pop, made it a memory not easily forgotten.

One must expect detours if one ventures out without a CONFIRMED plan.

Solo, and no confirmed plan for this Christmas of 2010. No snow on the ground, unlike last year when we had snow nearly all winter, and though not warm, the day temperature on Christmas will not be freezing. More important, there WILL be a restaurant open in my hometown, here, in the sandhills of Nebraska.

Hm... to cook or not to cook. That is the holiday question?

And the answer? I really don't care.

Personally, I feel surprisingly relaxed about Christmas this year. I don't mind celebrating it, solo, since our Christmas, with family, will come on the first day of next year. Why relaxed? I can't answer that. Given this is the poorest I've been in years, and Christmas always triggers childhood horrors, I'm grateful. I have peace to share, this year, instead of the predictable, emotional outbursts and that dark cloud of depression.


So ... will this Christmas be less, if it is only the two of us? Yes, silly!

Will it be less because it is just the two of us? Oh my no!

Flying solo, just the two of us, on Christmas day 2010? Bet it will be priceless!