Yup. Smoked prime rib was my Christmas 2011 highlight.
But there’s another side of course.
I was at the cemetery twice on Christmas Day.
Once at about 9 am where I checked on Chris’ wall, ensured his stocking was still there and rolled up a lottery ticket and put it in.
I can’t remember when it started, but that’s how traditions go. For years and years, I’d put scratch and wins in all four of our stockings. It was just a little silly fun and part of the tradition was the mocking and jousting that would occur as we all grabbed the nearest coin and tried our luck.
The cemetery had a beautiful calmness to it as a low fog drifted over the far end of the field.
Dozens of new flowers, wreaths and memorial trinkets had been placed recently and you could see how busy the cemetery was going to be on Christmas Day.
When I went back later in the afternoon with AC, it was time to take down the stocking and we scratched the ticket when we got home. A total zero. We laughed. Might as well continue with the same luck on the other side in regards to the lottery!
And yes as we began this tradition years ago, we would take the opportunity to remind the boys that having a bit of fun was ok, but the Government is the big winner of the lottery game and they were much better off to work hard and save a few bucks!
The later visit to the Wall was after a windstorm that kicked in with a vengeance late Christmas morning.
We’ve seen that kind of wind before and imagine Chris and Dylan and their new gang surfing on the silver lining of those clouds.
So many people make the cemetery a place to be on Christmas Day. I never even thought about that before.
So many people like the dear Reichelts are managing through their very first Christmas without Dylan here in human form.
We all don’t want to think about it and we’re the same.
We so wish Chris could have had some prime rib.
We’ll do that again on the other side.
Be The Best. 