Christmas Eve

I'm feeling especially melancholy this year, for reasons I won't go into just yet. Christmas Eve was a big deal when I was a kid. We had a big gathering at my grandparents, where I'd visit with all my cousins. It has been 11 years since that's happened, and sadly I missed the last time because of my stupid job at the Big Firm. One grandparent passed away, and it was just too much to manage to continue to have the family gathering there. Occasionally they had one at the local community center, but that came to an end once my last grandparent passed on [somehow, he hung on until a couple of years ago] as the family has dispersed and the grandchildren have started their own families and some of my generation are even grandparents themselves at this point [it's rural Oklahoma, par for the course.]

It's been difficult for me to travel to visit my parents, sister, and nieces. I will probably try to do so next year. But for this year, I'm thinking about the past, and what has been lost, and wondering what the coming year will bring. Merry Christmas, Imaginary Reader.