First Christmas.... (In Bluffton)

With the passage of time, we need (or at least I do) something to mark our way. I could mark it by my critical event... the stroke happened 3 years ago, but that is becoming more and more distant, I'm still cognizant of the fact that it happened, I'm still living with the vestiges after all. But this time I wish to remember my first Christmas here in Bluffton.

It was kind of sad if you think about it, but I look back and then I look forward and I see I am in a much better place now... so you need a little bad to let you know just how good you have it. I didn't even have a place to live yet. All I had was a room at the Suburban Lodge. Which for the most part is not a place I would like to call home. I did have my daughter with me (the teenager... who was not a teenager at the time) who was 9 at the time. I didn't know my current wife, so it was just us two, and I bought I small Christmas tree (I call it my Charlie Brown tree). I had gifts from my parents and friends and I drove to the upstate to get them along with my daughter.

So there we are... having Christmas together, which doesn't seem very Christmasy. I guess because I'm used to big family events, not so much a 1 on 1. Also I should note that because of an incident where my daughter thought the conventional oven directions were the microwave directions, it kind of stunk in there. So we are stinking and opening presents, which lasted about 30 minutes at best. It was cold outside, so what were we to do?

I took us on a ride out to Tybee Island. Why? I don't really remember... Probably because our room smelled bad and I thought what is someplace reasonable that we could go, and Tybee is what I came up with. But it was no warmer down on Tybee than it was there in Bluffton. But we were out and about, though nothing was open, we "walked" the beach for maybe 5 seconds, and we decided against it. Still I remember the time together just the now 15-year-old, as a good time and maybe we were not where we wanted to be, but we had each other, and even managed to have a bit of fun to boot. Would I want that again? I don't think so, but it does put a bit of perspective on things.