Yes, it’s here, my annual Holiday Cheer blog. I realize that it’s a little early. I usually write after Christmas but before New Years. This year I couldn’t wait. Last year,the Davis family (wife’s family) treated me to my first full-Christmas experience. It was Christmas morning and the family sat around the Christmas tree opening their gifts starting with the youngest person (Becky) to the oldest (big poppa). It’s really an all-American family. I was the poor fool that was completely unprepared and didn’t buy any gifts when I was showered with them.
Not this year baby! I’m hooking up the family. Jon already got a pair of Laker tickets (the Miami game where Kobe hit the game-winner). Becky already knows some tickets are coming her way. That’s all I’ll say for now because it isn’t Christmas yet.
Speaking of the family experience, apparently the Davis family has their Christmas decorations stored up in boxes that take up about a third of their garage. I asked them why would they keep that stuff around when you only use it about a month out of the year. The mother-in-law told me “because it’s Christmas” like it was self-explanatory. For most people it would be self-explanatory but for a guy who didn’t have much of a Christmas tradition growing up it almost seemed foolish to use up that much storage.
The mother-in-law continues and says that one day I will be doing the same thing when the kids come along. I replied, “What does Christmas decorations have anything to do with raising kids?” She says, “It has a lot to do with raising kids.” I wouldn’t have ever made the connection between Christmas decorations and raising kids. After giving it some thought, I realize that having a family tradition where you think outside of yourself (getting gifts for other people) and coming together to show that we care enough to put some thought into the gift we give each other shows community and love towards one another. It builds an environment and atmosphere of family and togetherness. It shows that you're not the center of the universe and what truly makes the holidays great is the gathering of God's people in the form of families. Even Becky wanted the wife and I to stay over on Christmas Eve so we could wake up together on Christmas morning. If you know Becky, she never openly admits that she wants us around. It’s just been ingrained in her since she was a child that this is a time where the family is to be together.
All right, I will concede the fact that I will probably start decorating for Christmas in the future but I certainly won’t take up a third of the garage to do it. Besides, I have visions of the garage being my “man-room” where I study the Scriptures, play video games, watch basketball, and invite the guys over for poker night (all in that order).
Okay, on to more important things like the NBA on Christmas. In years past there use to be a game or two on Christmas at the most but now there’s a full schedule (five games in all). Of course the match ups of match ups, the Lakers vs. Cavs, Kobe vs. Lebron! Since the NBA went through all this trouble to schedule Christmas day games I decided I should schedule my day around it. Here it is:
8:00am – Wake up and have some breakfast, open gifts, and make fun of other people’s gifts.
9:00am – Miami @ New York: I’m going to DVR this game while I make the family watch “Always Showtime,” a documentary on Magic Johnson. The other night the wife and I were watching it and she says, “I didn’t know Magic was such a good passer.” My reply, “For being a social science major you really don’t know your history.” I promised myself that no one in the Jamreonvit household would ever say something like this again. Surprisingly, even the father-in-law hasn't seen "Always Showtime." He loses Big Poppa points for that one.
After finishing the documentary with the family I’ll watch Dwayne Wade light up the Knicks and fast-forward through all the time-outs and commercials just in time for:
11:30am – Boston @ Orlando: KG vs. Dwight Howard. Even though Paul Pierce isn’t playing because of a knee infection it’s still going to be a good game. Of course this is all a warm-up for:
2:00pm – Cleveland @ L.A. Lakers: Like I said, Kobe vs. Lebron! Do I really need to say anything else? Historically, the Lakers and Kobe haven’t played well on Christmas (4-6 in there last ten Christmas games) but I believe last year’s win over Boston is a turning point. One game won’t settle the Kobe vs. Lebron debate but it will sure to add fire to it. I’m fired up just thinking about it. After the Lakers win I’ll cerebrate by drinking too much root beer in one sitting and regretting it later. Yes, a Christmas tradition in the Jamreonvit household. Happy holidays.
My picks for the games (home team in caps):
NEW YORK (-2.5) over Miami
ORLANDO (-5) over Boston
LAKERS (-5.5) over Cleveland
PHOENIX (-9.5) over Clippers
Denver (+5.5) over PORTLAND
Traditions are awesome! You're already on the way. Junior, Jr. when he is an old man will be hanging out with his kids and grandkids and saying, "Why do we watch the Lakers vs. (whatever other team) on Christmas? Tradition kids. I used to do it every year with my father and your grandfather, the infamous Papa Junior aka Thai Gold.
ReplyDeleteI would hope that Junior Jr. would stay faithful in that tradition. Although I have to admit, I might have to think about some other ones considering that the game is only two and a half hours long. What are we going to do the rest of the day?
ReplyDeleteNow that the holidays are over you can enjoy a much more relaxing Orlando vacation. There is a small window of opportunity from now until just before Valentines Day.
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