A Christmas Story

With a heavy sigh Morgan put down their phone. December 15th and it looked like another disappointing Christmas was just around the corner.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. They had such high hopes just a couple of months ago. This year they would get to go home and visit with family. True, home was not always perfect but at least it was home. This year they could travel. This year families could gather together. This year would be different. Or at least that had been the plan.

It had been a hard year. Well really it had been a hard couple of years now.

Back at the beginning of the pandemic Morgan had lost their job. Taylor had to shut down their catering business for a good 6 months. Morgan got CERB payments but those were not quite enough to cover basic expenses, so the debts started to pile up. Finally Taylor felt able to start catering again. Morgan found a new, and better, job. Things were looking up.

Because there were no big meals and office parties to cater Taylor tried something different. They rediscovered the joy of baking, of making fancy desserts – and found out how wonderfully enjoyable that was. It opened a whole new window as the holiday season approached. Orders for dessert platters came flooding in. Add in a few orders for family turkey dinners and business was going great. Things were looking good.

Still Christmas that year felt off somehow. Even though Taylor’s family all lived in the city there was, of course, no way to gather all together. Christmas greetings with family and friends were limited to standing at opposite ends of the driveway shouting greetings across the distance as gifts were dropped at the door. Or maybe a few video chats with people more distant. They were nice, but it wasn’t the same. Even the local church was only having services online.

On Christmas Eve Morgan and Taylor gathered in front of the TV and watched worship service. They sang along with the choir. They listened to the story again. It was nice to see familiar faces in a familiar space but still something was missing. Later that evening they went out for a walk along the river. The air was crisp. The moon was bright. There were church bells ringing. Other people were out for a walk and singing carols. Something special was in the air. With a smile Taylor realized Morgan was softly singing “Fahoo forays, dahoo dorays Welcome Christmas, bring your light Fahoo forays, dahoo dorays Welcome in the cold of night” By the time they got back home they were cold but refreshed.

Christmas Day everybody was up bright and early and piled into the kitchen. Food was prepared and portioned all morning. Then driving around town and delivering meals to family and some close family-like friends – all the people who would normally have been coming over for dinner that night. Later they all gathered together over video chat to eat dinner together. Stories were told. Laughter rang out over the web. Dinner deliveries had included Christmas crackers so everyone was wearing their paper crowns. After dinner, just before logging off, everyone talked about what they missed the most this year, and what was the best part of Christmas this year.

Later that night, as they were preparing for bed, Morgan and Taylor both commented what a good day it had been even though it was not exactly what they wanted. As Morgan put it “Covid did not stop Christmas from coming, it came. Somehow or other it came just the same”. Taylor laughed and said “yes but next year I want us to all play zoozittacarzay and carve the roast beast together”. They both looked at the Grinch ornament on their tree and laughed heartily.

Now here it was, a whole year later. And it looked like Christmas would be pretty much the same. It had been a hard year. Sure Morgan loved the new job, they had even gotten used to working from home. And Taylor’s business was growing steadily, though missing out on a second wedding season had been a bitter pill to swallow. But Morgan’s family were all ranchers. The heat and drought over the summer had taken a real toll on the ranching business. Then their mother and brother had both tested positive for Covid. Neither had to be hospitalized but full recovery was taking a long time. It had just seemed so important to be able to go home for Christmas, even with the inevitable disagreements about so many things – this year including pandemic restrictions and vaccines. Just as Taylor walked in Morgan dropped their head to the table and began to cry.

“Hey!”, What’s with that?” asked Taylor, moving over to rub Morgan’s back.
“I just called mom to tell her we wouldn’t be coming out next week.” Morgan replied. “It just feels like Christmas is going to be terrible again.”
“What do you mean again?”
“Well like last year, when nothing was the way we wanted it.”
“But last year was great. Well maybe not great, but it wasn’t terrible – just different”
“I guess so” Morgan sobbed, “I just had so many hopes for this year”
“So we have to adapt again this year, we can do that”

Morgan stopped and looked at Taylor for a moment. Then Morgan thought about everything that made last Christmas so special. Was it what they had wanted? No. Was it perfect? No. Was it a disaster? Also no. Maybe this Christmas could be special too.

“Oh by the way.” said Taylor, I signed us up to help out at the Community dinner on Boxing Day. And I put our names on the list for the late service on Christmas Eve.”

Taylor reached out and took Morgan’s hand. Morgan looked up into Taylor’s eyes and realized that just like last year they could still do Christmas. Even if it was video chats and not dining room visits. Even if it was masks and social distancing at church. Even if it wasn’t the same as it had always been. Christmas would still be there. They could still sing some carols, tell the story, and listen for angel song. And, not for the first or the last time, Morgan realized how blessed and lucky they were to have this life they shared with Taylor.

“You’re right,” said Morgan, drying their eyes. “Now let’s go finish that last batch of baking so we can do our deliveries tomorrow” 

 

** Quotes from the classic animated Grinch special taken from here