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Monday, December 25, 2006

Christmas orphanhood

posted by on December 25 at 16:25 PM

I am a Christmas orphan by choice this year. Even though I finally live within close proximity of my parents, I decided to see what it’s like to just play hooky on the whole, disappointing (unboozy) thing. What is it like? A little glum. I should have remembered my experience when, in the full swing of high school angst, we went to visit the Valdez family in California for Christmas. Too bad they’re Jehovah’s Witnesses. And don’t celebrate holidays. And still don’t drink. And their house was filled with Margaret Keane paintings. I yearned for my mom’s and my weird ritual of eating a miniature dinner of Cornish hens in the kitchen (only child.) So I am soon off to another family’s warm hearth. And unlike my kin, these folks drink.

Perhaps if I get in better spirits I will try to perform this gymnastics move, amazingly called the Valdez.

RSS icon Comments

1

Hahaha! You were alone on Christmas ego-surfing!

Don't worry, it's not as pathetic as it sounds.

Posted by And I Am Not Charles Mudede | December 25, 2006 4:44 PM
2

My mom and I ate Cornish hens in the kitchen too. I suppose this is a universal single-mom only-child thing? (We drank plenty of wine though.) Merry Christmas.

Posted by jessiesk | December 25, 2006 4:45 PM
3

I boycotted my family's Christmas because I didn't feel like pretending that my brother isn't crazy. This is the first Christmas that I've spent without my family. It feels both hopelessly immature and weirdly adult.

Posted by Papayas | December 25, 2006 5:38 PM
4

"mom and I's"?

Posted by Dikki Anjensen | December 25, 2006 6:45 PM
5

Grammar isn't required during a revealing personal anecdote.

Posted by Sha | December 26, 2006 4:48 AM
6

"family Christmas" became a farce at the tender age of 8 when my mom left my dad and he lost all interest in holidays. "I really don't see the point, it's just a waste of money" was what the man who had hidden our living room floor under boxes and boxes or presents in the Christmas' before.

When I moved to Seattle ten years ago I tried going back for Christmas a couple times and the travel mess was never really worth it. So I'm always a Christmas orphan and have been since 1977, I've only now come to embrace it.

A friend has an open house every year so I'm never alone. It's not the same as the pre-divorce years but it's much better than the lame attempt years that followed. The important part is that I always feel loved.

Merry Christmas!

Posted by monkey | December 26, 2006 9:29 AM

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