|
This isn't to be one of these posts about having to deal with fundie relatives, though I certainly feel very badly for all of you. I am a lucky one with a picture perfect family, not Christian but we celebrate Christmas anyway.
No, indeed, this thread is about being away from home for the holidays. I'm 25 years old and this is my very first Christmas away from home...before you feel badly for me, my parents and brother are coming to me, along with my boy's parents and sister (marking a first meeting between families). The families are coming to us in Bangkok, and it promises to be a beach/temple/market/massage-filled good time. So, I'm not looking for, or really worthy of, sympathy (we're even spending Christmas itself in Chiang Mai so I'll actually need long sleeves).
The point of this post is to drag out of you the things you miss from being at home for the holidays. I already miss the tree tradition in my house: up until this year, every year, my dad takes my brother and I out into the woods, and both the bro and I get to pick one tree that we like, and my dad cuts them down (well, we kids do it lately). Then we collect a few other branches here and there and we duct tape them all together in an elaborate sculptural process at home in the garage. We've perfected the art over the years.
(And before you accuse me of tree massacre: we carefully pick our trees so that we're thinning out an area to let some others grow bigger, and the branches are never integral to the whole. My brother's an ecologist: the selection process takes a while.)
Anyway, what do you miss from home? What are you looking forward to this year? Am trying to get in the spirit, but it's so damn hot here that it's rather difficult.
|