Sometimes You Have To Work On Christmas (Eve), Sometimes

Yeah, I’m here at work on Christmas Eve, gotta keep the customer satisfied, as Simon and/or Garfunkel said. It could be worse, I could be one of the poor saps who have to work on the big Christmas Day, but Christmas Eve has traditionally been a big day in my family.

Since I was born (except for the years that I spent Christmas in California), we have gone to my grandmother’s house for the afternoon/evening. It started out with everyone from my grandmother’s side of the family, cousins removed 4 or 5 times that I could never remember the names of. As my grandparents got older, and it got more difficult to have that many people in their house, the celebration got trimmed down to the immediate family – which is still a healthy 25-30 people (depending on who shows).

We are a family without many traditions, but this was one of them, and it was a day that I looked forward to almost as much as Christmas itself. There was always a lot of love and laughter in that little house; good times with cousins that are closer than siblings are in some families.

This is the first Christmas since grandpa passed away, and it’s the first year that Christmas Eve will be celebrated outside of that house that my mother grew up in, a house that still stands and has since been passed to my cousin.

So I feel a little melancholy sitting in my cube today, knowing there will be a hole which cannot be filled in all of family’s souls where once stood a giant, drinking Rainier beer from a can, smiling and laughing.

I’ve decided I’m gonna stop at a gas station on my way outta here, pick me up some Rainier and have a drink in the big guy’s honor. I know somewhere he’s having one himself.