Wassailing

Christmas Day started out like all the others we have had in the past 5 years. Dillon and I had been on our own, since his oldest brother moved out, and went on to college several years earlier, and Jonathan, the middle son, had joined the Army the year prior. Robert and I just started dating in May of 2010, but he was with us on Christmas morning and my heart was so full, I thought it would surely burst. We opened our gifts, tearing the paper off, just like little children. Christmas is by far my favorite time of the year. I had a certain excitement in the the back of my head. It wasn’t about the presents, nor the Christmas feast, nor the normal happy jolly cheer that takes place on such a special day. Instead, I was jumping up and down on the inside with excitement about getting to fly to Fort Drum, New York to see my middle son Jonathan, before he left for Afghanistan. Jon-Jon (which is what we call him) had purchased two airline tickets, one for myself, and one for his daughter Abby, who I was supposed to bring up there for the holidays. The anticipation was almost more than I could handle. I think now, looking back, the thought of him going over-seas to fight in a war was the scariest thing I have ever had to endure. After our gift opening ritual, I prepared a fabulous breakfast of homemade sausage gravy and biscuits. Working as a manager for Bojangles’ for almost 13 years, gave me an edge in the gravy department. But anyway, we all gathered around the table for…

evaluate their contemporary customs, and see how they are able to regain some of the joyous traditions of the past.Irving’s description enforces the problem to readers, their modern society has lost the Christmas spirit. “The world has become more worldly. There is more of dissipation, and less of enjoyment. Pleasure has expanded into a broader, but a shallower stream, and has forsaken many of those deep and quiet channels where it flowed sweetly through the calm bosom of domestic life. Society…