Thursday, December 29, 2011
I remember how, when my siblings and i were young, you and george would take us out in your car every christmas eve to drive around cincinnati and look at christmas lights. I remember us all sitting in the back seat basking in the pleasure of being with Uncle George and Aunt Linda. You were always so special to us. (On a side note, every family event had us kids running around saying "when is Aunt Linda going to get here?" - we wanted YOU to be with us more than anything else. The 'why' of that is simple - we just loved being with YOU.) Anyway, you would keep us out for some presumably allocated time by my parents... because when we arrived home it was always the case that Santa had arrived!! I guess that early in our lives my parents got savvy enough to have Santa arrive on Xmas eve rather than waking at 5AM on Xmas --oddly enough, always when we were out with YOU!!(Wow, as I write this I realized you and George were complicit in this. It was not just innocent driving around, was it? It has taken me 35 years to put two and two together). This tradition must have stopped when all of us found out the truth about Mr Claus and mom could just unceremoniously drag presents out of her closet. I wish you were here to take my kids on Xmas eve drives. I loved sitting in your backseat. Little tiny things that happen in life - sometimes they take on a life of their own and offer much more importance than we think. I love you, I miss you.
