Christmas Keeps Changing

It does not seem like it was that long ago that I remember walking into our son’s bedroom on Christmas Eve to see something that I had never seen before.  Ian was sound asleep, and signing. Santa and reindeer on were on the roof – he could feel the house shake!  Gifts, gifts, gifts.  The reindeer had found the reindeer food we put in the yard (dog food)!  We stood and watched for about 3 or 4 minutes as Ian dreamed, and signed as he slept.  Santa did come that year, and he was thrilled.  I do not remember exactly what he got, but the gifts were the gifts that most 4 or 5 year olds want.

Seventeen years further on, that is still one of my favorite Christmas memories.   Now that he is twenty one, we have to send the golden retriever upstairs to wake him instead of shooing him back to bed because the sun is not up, and 4:00 AM does not mean it is morning….  The simple reality is that there are now 3 adults in the house instead of 2 adults and a kid.  The Christmas memories are now different.  We opened gifts and then had to wake him up again to go on down to my wife’s parent’s house for breakfast and, of course, more gifts.  

There are still memories made, however.  We did spend time in Virginia with my parents.  It isn’t a particularly exciting trip, but it is important.  My father is not able to travel, so it is one of the few times a year we can see him or my mother.  Ian is so good with the sitting.  My father is just so happy we are there and wants Ian to sit with him.  Ian does, without complaining.  For me, it is bittersweet, remembering what my father was like when he was younger.  But, there is nothing you can do to fight that inexorable passage of time. 

Christmas Eve, Ian and I had two jobs – we first directed the parking of cars at church (small parking lot and a lot of cars) and then we went inside and were ushers for the service.

Bracketing Christmas, the wife and I had two other milestones.  Both of us turned 50.  We are twelve days apart in age.  It wasn’t a huge crisis for either one of us.  The only bad part was the doctor’s appointment where I suddenly realized that the nurse taking my pulse was young enough to date my son.   That was the only time I felt old….  Anyway, like the song says, it is just another trip around the sun.

New Year’s eve – there were three glasses of champagne instead of two and a sparkling cider.  Then the two older ones went straight to bed.  Ian had done some socializing with friends, but was kind enough to spend New Year’s with his parents.   

Ian also gave us a couple of gifts.  The most important one for us, however, was an early one.  He got his grades for the semester at St. Johns River State College.  Two A’s and a B.  3.66.   All three of them in his computer science major.   One programming class, a network design class, and one on computer operating systems.  Neither one of us could have asked for a better gift.  And the best part of all of it for us was that we stayed out of his hair and did NOT helicopter.  It was up to him whether he succeeded or not and if he studied or not.  His choices and he seemed to have made the right ones.   Merry Christmas to us!  Ian was also happy, because the helicopter had actually landed instead of the constant hover.  I guess that way Santa did not need an air traffic controller to land at our house.