A Christmas Tradition

This holiday season we formally accepted as fact what had been a suspicion for a long time. That our Christmas tradition was we had no Christmas traditions.

And that’s okay.

When you never know where you are going to be or who you are going to be with from one holiday season to the next, no two Christmases can be the same, and there can be no reasonable expectation something you are able to do during the holiday season one year will be possible the next.

The best Thanksgiving we have had in recent memory was the Thanksgiving we spent in Brazil when we went to the churrascaria Porcao and were all given playing cards that read “Sim” on one side in green to indicate “Yes! Bring us more meat!” And “Nao” on the other side in red to signal “Oh my lord Mother Mary in heaven I couldn’t eat another bite!”  This Christmas even we went out for sushi.  The next day, for Christmas dinner, Elise made bo-sam, a Korean pork dish served in iceberg lettuce cups.  The only thing constant from one Christmas to the next is that we are all together. That may, some day, change, as well.  We don’t know where we will spend Christmas next year.  It may be in our new home in Sri Lanka.  We may decide to go on a trip.  Or fly back to the States and spend the holidays with family.  We just don’t know.  And that’s okay.  

In other news, Sam has his own room.  He lobbied hard for his own space, and after a few modifications the guest room became his.  The winter break has been profoundly lazy.  Largely in part to how cold, wet, and grey this winter has been.  The kids have taken to mostly quietly playing with new toys acquired on Christmas (we have for the time being banned TV first thing in the morning, and the difference has been stark.  They had made a habit of turning on the TV as soon as they crawled out of bed on Fridays and Saturdays....usually because I would be gone running...and watching cartoons for an hour, but as soon as the TV snapped off they turned into raving maniacs. Without their morning visual hyperstimulation, they’ve been much more mellow).  This is all to say that, in his new room, Sam has taken to cranking the split-pack heater unit to 30 degrees Celsius and just lying in bed reading most of the day.  You can then leap forward in time and imagine what bed time is like.  Sam is like a giant, loping, tongue-lolling-out-of-the-side-of-his-mouth golden retriever who — if not run — will park itself at your feet, wide eyes trained up at you, leash in mouth, waiting for attention. 

It is at the end of these days when he comes into our room at night, trying to convince us he wants to sleep, but he doesn’t know how.

It started when Elise was in India, and Sam slept in bed with me four nights in a row.  I didn’t think much of it. We all missed her.  But then whatever was keeping him up continued after her return, and we dealt with two weeks straight of Sam and his strange sleep anxiety born from what I’m not exactly sure.  Restlessness? Anxiety?  His new room?  Lack of exercise?  Even on Christmas Eve he didn’t finally go to sleep to almost 11:00.  You can imagine how that went over. 

Though the situation has been slowly improving since then.  The local park behind the grocery store and the sushi burrito place across the street from our house has been closed since October for renovations I fear will never end (the entire park is literally torn apart as though some subterranean super-villain drove their burrowing machine through.  All the earth has been turned over with giant earth-moving equipment that then just disappeared; I have no idea how they will put it all back where it was). It’s made getting outside and running the kids more challenging.  In an effort to make sure everyone gets enough fresh air to sleep at night we’ve been heading over to my work and playing on the new rec field that just opened. Most days we have the field to ourselves and can play American football or soccer.  Me and Clem vs Pete and Sam.  

On New Year's Day, we drove north to Jerash.  We had recently tried to visit Jerash with Elise's parents, but unfortunately the park was closed to recent rains ripping open wadis with flash floods.  At the time, we hadn't realized there was a wadi that ran through the ruins, separating the ancient city of Jerash with its modern-day equivalent.  Now we understand...kind of...that in the extremely unlikely event we were caught off guard by torrential rains, we may have been in danger of being swept away by a flash flood.

This trip to Jerash, revealed new treasures as yet unexplored since our last visit was preempted by Peter falling from a rock at the Temple of Artemis and splitting his chin open.  We were able to visit the Temple of Jupiter this time around and the amphitheater where we were able to delight in the impromptu entertainment provided by a Jordanian bagpiper and a chorus of Italian tourists serenading one another. Peter was experiencing some weird leg pain mid-quadricep, so after carrying him piggyback through most of the ruins over uneven cobblestones, we stopped at our favorite lunch spot, the Lebanese House for lunch where we proceeded to order just the right amount, then second-guessed ourselves when the kids tore through the first mixed grill in record time and ordered a second mixed grill, only to end up with way too much food.  I was uncomfortable most of the rest of the day, yet it was still a wonderful way to ring in the new year.