Lost in transit

Home for the Holidays

Before I had a child, I had many Christmases away from my family. Christmas sleeping on a beach in Thailand? No problem. Christmas working? Okay. Christmas at the houses of students? Sure. Christmas spent inside, eating a box of Christmas cookies and watching videos, alone? Better still. But after my son was born I felt he should have a Christmas Family Feeling, and so beginning with his first Christmas, we flew back to the States for Christmas.

If you travel anywhere for Christmas, you know that it is like joining a salmon run. Seriously: this mass of bodies, all driven to return home, many of us because of the spawn. Most journeys start off with great intentions and holiday cheer, but by the time you reach your destination you are exhausted by humanity and not in the best of all possible holiday moods. It's never pleasant to travel during the holidays, and the longer your journey, the less pleasant it becomes. At best, you're tired from traveling. On average, you've been listening to some small child (whose parents probably had the same crazy "home for the holidays" idea you do) scream for fifteen hours. In worse cases, the suitcase full of gifts has been lost. Or you have been.

Three Christmases ago, we met my parents at my cousin's in Florida. I went walking on the beach to watch the sunrise over the ocean every morning and ate almost enough seafood to satisfy me (there is not enough seafood to satisfy me, but I came close in Florida). It was a good Christmas, but at some point my mother said what a shame it was that my husband wasn't with us, that he didn't want to spend Christmas with his family (he won't fly). And I thought: this is ridiculous.

So- the last two Christmases, we haven't gone anywhere. We've stayed here at home. Because when I think of HOME, I think of here, I think of the Czech Republic and I think of Brno and I even think specifically of this apartment. This "home for the holidays" thing doesn't need to involve 20 hours of travel because I am already home.

I do realize that for many people, the week off at Christmas is the only time they can travel, and I think I would travel if those were my circumstances, only a one-week window in which I could see my folks. I mean: I do feel a need to stay connected to my, ah, ancestral home. It's just that we're going in February. Because I love my American family, but for Christmas I wanted to be home. I wanted to be here.

Where is your home? Were you there for Christmas?

Posted by anne at December 27, 2006 12:28 PM