December 13, 2011
White Christmas, Blue Balls
Today I start to officially celebrate Christmas by playing and singing classic Christmas songs in the house. Mike is not a fan of Christmas songs so it’s just me “dreaming of a white Christmas” along with Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, Dean Martin, and Pat Boone.
When I was growing up, snow was the essence of our Christmas. We sang about celebrating Christmas with chestnuts and open fire. That we lived in the Philippines and had no idea what snow or winter felt like didn’t stop us from making fake snow with salt and bars of white Ola or Perla soap to lace our plastic pine trees with.
Having lived in California since I immigrated into the US almost twenty years ago, I still don’t really know what winter with snow feels like. And yet my white Christmas dream persists. I still “feel” snow when I celebrate Christmas.
What is it with Christmas and snow? Friends send me cards with illustrations of falling snowflakes. Plastic snowmen litter my neighbors’ front lawns. Charlie’s daycare showcases a giant plastic globe with falling Styrofoam snow inside.
As I try to figure out what to decorate our Christmas tree with, Mike suggests blue balls, lots of blue balls. With two month old Jack who grunts all night, and three year old Charlie who wakes up at 2 am and insists on sleeping with us on our bed, blue balls is the reality we live in, not snow. And so- blue balls it is.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Ginikanan 
Dec 13, 2011 @ 23:35:06
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