Holiday Cheer 2010

I know that I’m late with this blog but since I was early last year, I’ll go ahead and cut myself some slack. In 2008, I was treated to my first full-Christmas experience. As the tradition continues this is how things played out this year.

As usual, Christmas morning starts off with some breakfast with the family (at the in-laws). As half of us walk around half asleep and not saying much to anyone (think me and Jon) we patiently await the arrival of other family members doing other things. We were blessed to have Farakh and Rebecca Zaman join us this year. Rebecca is the sister of Rachel Davis – the wife of Alan Davis – a brother of the wife – did you get all that? Furthermore, Alan and Rachel were able to stay the week along with Eric and Liz – Liz is the cousin of Allie Davis – the wife of PJ Davis – a brother of Eric Davis – who are the brothers of the wife – did you get all that? Good. I’m glad we’re all tracking. Allie was also able to make it (all the way from Guam, no less). PJ was helplessly stuck with the kids ordering pizza every night. Do they have pizza in Guam? Apparently. PJ felt left out but no one cared.

Before I start too far in with Christmas morning, however, let me begin with Christmas Eve. Rachel has been a great addition to the family, almost as great as me. And with additions to the family there are also additions of traditions. Rachel came up with the idea of making gingerbread houses the night before Christmas. Great call. We all gathered around the dining room table and started our craft. It was surprisingly pretty fun. The wife and I tagged-teamed and built Staples Center (of course). Becky built a World War II foxhole, clearly symbolizing her feistiness. Alan built a hut straight out of Gilligan’s Island to match his “no worries” attitude. Rachel built the White House, interestingly with red doors. Clearly, Rachel likes being the boss. Jon built a romantic scene, a bench overlooking a river flowing under a lovely pathway. I think he’s lonely. Farakh and Rebecca tag-teamed and built a house with a smoking chimney (using dry ice) and Christmas lights – overachievers. Rachel declared herself the winner but that’s up for debate. Good times all around (except for PJ who was upset that we started this tradition the year he left). I have no doubts that next year it’ll be even bigger.




Shortly after the gingerbread bash we went quietly back to our place. The wife had half my Christmas gift for me ready to be opened at home. Without much thought, I went ahead and opened it. It was a beautiful framed picture of my mom with the eulogy I wrote as well. I wept. It’s been about three years since my mom’s passing and it’s still difficult to see pictures of her. It reminds me how beautiful she was and that I no longer have her around. It’s especially difficult during the holidays. We’ll put the picture in the family room for all to see, so that everyone could remember what an amazing woman she was.

The other half of the wife’s gift was some clothes and a lot of socks. She knows that I won’t buy clothes for myself so she takes any opportunity to buy me some new stuff. She also notices that I have holes in just about every pair of socks I currently have except my dress socks. I tell her the trick is to know how to hide the holes. She wasn’t having it, so she bought me some new socks and will be throwing away my perfectly good “holy” socks.

As for the wife’s gift, I got her furniture. I can hear some people now telling me how lame that is because “we both use the furniture so it can’t really be a gift,” just like the way people point out that “you can’t say you bought your wife a house because you live in it too.” Since when does something qualify as a “gift” if only one person uses it? Besides, I bought myself a reclining chair for reading, napping, and doing nothing. I bought her a counter table, four counter stools, a dresser for the bedroom, and a coffee table none of which I’ll be using. So there, take THAT!

Moreover, I’ve never been furniture shopping so you could imagine my surprise with the prices. I walked into Living Spaces and nearly had a heart attack. I thought it was some terrible joke. Immediately, I asked a salesmen “What are those sofas made out of? Cocaine?” I won’t tell you how much I spent because I don’t want to relive the nightmare but lets just say that it was more than socks. Lets move on.

On Christmas morning we begin with the usual Davis tradition of the youngest to the oldest person opening up the gifts. It’s truly a delight to give to others and watching the joy that thoughtful gifts bring to the ones you love. I’ve already mentioned how my perspective of the Holiday Season has changed throughout the years and it’s still continuing to transform, thanks to a great family and an Awesome God. We even got the in-laws additional gifts this year. For the mother-in-law (aka the mother-in-law) we got her some Noel Piper books (John Piper’s wife) and for the father-in-law (aka The Chief) we got him audio sermons by John Piper (aka Johnny Master P) on the entire book of Hebrews and Romans. I fully intend on borrowing them immediately. It was a great Christmas all around. Well, it was almost perfect – my Lakers for the second straight year rolled over to a Lebron James led team. I guess you can’t have everything, but at least I got some new socks.