The Christmas Trips

The Christmas Trip
For many years (once we had the empty nest), we (Connie and I) made a Christmas trip. We lived in Connecticut and both of our families were in the Midwest. Sometimes the trips were after Christmas (as I frequently had to play tuba in the Brass Quintet for Christmas Eve services at our church).

Many years, it was a plane trip. One Christmas morning trip was to Austin (from Hartford CT). The booking was on Delta - and the hub was Cincinnati. Cincinnati had been hit by an ice storm the previous two days and even that morning, the terminal was filled with people sleeping on seats, on the floor, and waiting to catch the next flight to wherever. And, the airlines were doing their best to find seats on already full flights.

One Christmas morning we arrived in Austin while our family was still gone. We were tired and hungry with no place to go. After looking around, we found an IHOP and had breakfast as there were no other places open. That same Christmas was our first trip to Corpus Christi and the Gulf of Mexico.

One Christmas in Austin we stayed in an Extended Stay hotel as our Nebraska family stayed with our Texas family at their house. The three most memorable points of that trip were (1) our credit card number had been used to buy electronic games (not our purchase), and (2) we discovered that the hotel door didn’t even latch completely and basically, our room was locked. The third (3) was that our daughter, who was expecting twins, was (ahh) ‘very’ pregnant and as we shopped at HEB Central Market as a total family she had trouble not bumping into each other.

We drove most years (from 2000 to 2012) - as we had a car full of gifts. One year we fought the New Jersey turnpike as freezing rain started - and we ‘fought’ the weather (successfully) passed Washington DC. (Connie needed to pry my fingers off the steering wheel on that trip).

Another year we were maybe 30 miles south of a heavy snowfall on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Whatever radio station we found was just that far north of us and was telling of the icy roads. We were getting a cold rain with a temperature about 35.

We’ve been in 60-degree weather in Nebraska and zero-degree weather. (Which I - trying to be funny - described as “no-temperature at all”).

There were some years where I shoveled at the Nebraska family’s house every day.

When we retired from Connecticut to Leander Texas, we frequently would have Christmas with the local side of the family and New Year’s with our son and family in Nebraska. We checked the weather app frequently to avoid snow and ice. Just because it wasn’t snowing in Nebraska didn’t mean that we would escape freezing rain in Oklahoma.

There was the year that we stopped in Salina Kansas on our way back from Nebraska at Menard’s building supply store and bought a beautiful arched display to bring home. That meant that we had to slide our seats forward to get the box in the car. And then find niches for our suitcases, dirty clothes, and things we were already bringing back from Nebraska.

We have seen Christmas lights in many places - from Johnson City Texas to Ardmore Oklahoma, and Grand Island Nebraska.

But, whatever the year and the situation, the reason was the same - being a family at Christmas was important to us - and sharing the joy of Christmas and New Year with our family was part of our life.

Last year was my first year alone. I wasn’t invited to any family events (and I haven’t been for over a year-and-one-half). I was invited by a friend to her apartment - and we had a simple Christmas dinner and played cribbage. Nice, fun, but different.

To my senior friends, there are differences in Christmas trips, when there is only one person. In my case by divorce (not of my choosing, but I understand why it is happening). Think ahead to those times when one spouse has died and the other needs to cope with being alone at Christmas. For those younger, think of your senior parents - and even senior friends - who are alone - sitting in their apartments, eating leftovers - and remembering their previous (happy) Christmases. Many don’t want to come out to their family and say “Hey - I’m going to be alone for the Holidays, could you invite me over to be part of your celebration”. People don’t like pushy people and inviting yourself to somebody else’s event is not socially favored.

Family - friends - good times.

How can you make a single person happier this holiday season? Maybe it is somebody you know from your church - maybe somebody without anybody left in their family. How about you? Can you think of somebody outside your family that you could reach out to?

I can - and, even though Christmas is over, I’m going to be reaching out to two lonely friends!!!

Happy Holidays all!!!

Karen

(And as an after-thought, how about reaching out once a month to those elderly singles that you know)