Joey Dee’s Christmas Memories #4: Christmas With Dad

Split Christmases are nothing new to me. My parents divorced when I was very young, so I always had 2 Christmases. One with Mother, and one with Father.

Thinking back, I don't always associate my Christmas with my father as a part of Christmas. Mostly because his birth date is just a couple days after Christmas. Our Christmas celebrations would turn into birthday celebrations.

We still always had fun. I get my sense of humor and my wit from him. He always had a line to lighten a dark mood. Over the years it's become a bit of a competition between us to see who can get the other to laugh. He never actually laughs at any of my lines, but I know when I have him... he gets an almost proud look in his eye.

As I got into my teenage years, my father started wanting to get out of town for his birthday, which usually meant that we would be heading out as soon as I got there for Christmas. We would do our usual gift opening and dinner, but usually shortly after that, it was time to hit the road. Most of the trips that I did get to take when I was younger were because my dad wanted to get out of town for his birthday. Cabo, Walt Disney World, Snowbird Colorado, anywhere where we could ski; it was always somewhere unexpected with him.

He doesn't travel much around the holidays anymore. I'm extremely happy for that though. It's allowed me to bring my kids over to his house for Christmas dinner, and allowed me to start connecting more Christmas memories with him so they are not all birthday memories.

I will miss his roast beef this year, even though we all know it's really his wife cooking it. ;-)