A Blizzard, Sled, and a Tree, and My Sister Had to Pee!

Our blizzard was deeper than this! (Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash)

Christmas has always been an emotionally confusing time in some ways. Great excitement, peace, wonder, warmth, and joy are punctuated by frenetic activity, lack of money which detracts from the positives, and running out of time to accomplish everything. This scenario marked the Christmases of my childhood. My parents didn’t get things done in a timely fashion, which characteristic has descended upon me.

One Christmas that stands out in my memory illustrates one of those times, the Christmas Eve morning when I was thirteen and my little sister was eleven. I may not have always shown it, but I always cared for my sister; I tried to protect her from the deleterious effects of the alcoholism from which my parents suffered, including making holidays as close to my understanding of normal as I could.

When we got up that morning, the snow had been falling hard overnight and continued to do so. It was magical, beautiful, and definitely Christmas-y. However, in classic fashion, we did not yet have a Christmas tree. It always seemed like life was out of sync for us — great Christmas snow and feel but no tree.

The news kept referring to blizzard conditions. It was enough for my dad to make the definitive declaration that no tree would be possible; he couldn’t even go to work. My mom knew we were upset and tried to explain why it would be like…