Christmas Vacation is coming

I work my rear all year-round so that I can get some valued time off around the holidays.  I do this so that I can spend some quality time with my kids.  They are still young and I find that I want to enjoy as much time with both, before they hit those terrible teenage years and learn to despise their dad like all teenagers eventually do.  I really don’t have a ton planned to do this year.  My wife has started working again, so that means that I will be “stay at home dad” for at least a few of the days; keeping things in order. 

I helped organize a 3 on 3 hockey team (6 forwards and a goalie) for my son to play in a local tournament.  I never played hockey as a kid, and I find that I get more enjoyment watching my son than anything else in my life at the moment.  He’s very skilled and completely into it.  His dream is to go to the NHL someday and I hope that I can help guide him there if this isn’t just a passing phase he is going through (which it probably is, who knows?).  I’m looking forward to this.   I’ve helped assemble a team with 1 extremely talented player, 2 very skilled ones, 1 skilled kid, and 3 kids that will really benefit from being in something like this to help built up their talent.  I would count my son among the “very skilled” ones.

My daughter and I will probably go see a movie together for some one-on-one time.   I’m not sure which movie we will go see.  I can tell that she’s old enough now to not only sit through an entire movie, she can now enjoy the entire experience.  From popcorn to slushies to mulitple trips to the bathroom, it will be the whole gambit of fun! 

I usually like to hear from old friends during the holidays.  It’s always a nice surprise to get a phone call out of the blue from someone I haven’t talked to in years.  The older you get, the more difficult it becomes to get alone time with your adult friends.  At least that is the way it has worked out with me.  You get the friend who can’t go anywhere without his wife, the one that is just too lazy to leave his house, the one that you really don’t want to hang with anyway, and the one that can do something with you but only on a certain day at a certain time if the stars align just right.

And then there are the comic book message board websites during the holidays.  I”ve been fortunate to make some great friends on the internet over the years.  I can honestly say that some of the people I know on the web are some of the kindest souls I’ve known.  It makes me sad that I’ll probably never meet most of them.  I fear the day that one will pass away and I won’t even know about it.   It’s my hope that one year the stars will align just right, and we’ll all meet and have one beer together at some comic convention and talk about all the stuff we’ve posted about and learn more about each other than you can in an email, message board, or blog.  That said, there are some real loony tunes out there too.   People that take things way too serious, that seem to thrive on causing misery or trying to get through peoples skin, thick or thin, to cause some emotional pain.  It’s those posters that seem to pop up during the holiday season for some reason. They just look to cause pain and aggravation.  It’s sad.

Anyway… to anyone who reads this:  have a great holiday this year and remember to find a little love and joy to spread.  The holidays can be a bit depressing at times for some, and being a little extra nice might go a long way in making the world a little better.  I don’t always talk about some of the nice things people have done for me or given to me over the years… but I NEVER forget them.

Merry-early-Christmas everyone!

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