Five Golden Rings

Tis Christmas, a time of for joyful noise and peace and love...and gifts. Lots of gifts.

Before the daughters, one of the stronger Christmas memories is the Christmas I didn't go to. In 1981, I came back to Carson during the holiday break at Air Force tech school and I knew then that The Bride was something special. I chose to spend the day with her over my grandparents, a decision which made sense at the time, but now...

So here we are, the five of us together again, and The Bride and I are spending our 25th Noel as a couple...except she and Eldest are at the movies and the two young ones are hiding in their room, watching DVDs. With nothing better to do, I rode around town on Dollar, thinking about memories and disfunctional relations. My father's wife sent me an email a couple of days ago reminding me of my 70-year-old dad, who has a habit of running away and closing doors when his kids (and his past) try to get close to him. For that reason and others, I haven't exactly stumbled over the keyboard to respond her. My sister recently wrote Aunt Lily to say she might be outside prison bars in a work release program in 2006, and my mother keeps threatening to call but I know when she does, we'll get all distant with each other because of our special relationship.

It is a good sentimental day, too, for a gazillion reasons. For instance, I miss my grandparents a lot right now but am very, very happy they're spending their first Christmas together in a long time. This may be a little morbid, but I know that in a hundred years or so, I'll be with them and I can start making up for that one missed Christmas.

Distance: 5.7 miles
Time: 32:38 minutes
256 calories burned (probably more; hard cold wind the whole way.)