Julie Barrett is a freelance writer and photographer based in Plano, TX.

Weekend Assignment: Home for the Holidays?

Fresh when it gets here from Julie Barrett
Friday, December 19, 2008


What are your holiday-related travel arrangements this year, and is that they way you prefer to spend it?

As I mentioned in a previous Weekend Assignment, we used to go up to Kansas every year when I was a kid. It was an eight hour road trip where my brother touched me and breathed on me the entire time.*

Just joking I was prone to car sickness and had a "weapon" ready if he so much as touched me! ;-)

After we got married we juggled Christmas trips to visit his parents and my parents. It's hard to juggle schedules with people working odd hours, but we managed without any hard feelings. Of course, it just gets complicated as people mature. Paul's parents are no longer with us, but we still have dinner at my mother's at some point. These days we're fairly flexible, but now as our children grow and get jobs and go off to school, scheduling can be a nightmare. Again, we manage it without doing violence to anyone, which is a good thing! ;-)

I have to admit that Paul and I now enjoy spending Christmas day at home. Back in the B.C. (Before Chris) era, I worked in retail and then in radio, which meant very odd hours. I did get Christmas off in retail, but I volunteered to work Christmas at the radio station (sometimes double shifts) because we didn't have any kids. Once we had a child of our own we decided that we would at least spend Christmas mornings at home.

I'm sure holiday plans will change Chris moves out and perhaps starts a family of his own. But for now, we're enjoying spending Christmas day at home.

Extra Credit: Tell us a holiday travel story from yesterear.

As I said, we went to Kansas every year when I was a kid. One year, though, the family from Kansas came to Texas for Christmas. We had a particularly warm holiday season. As I recall it was 80F on Christmas, and the kids were all outdoors. This year the forecast is 40F for Wichita, and 60F here.

*Now, I have an update to the aforementioned previous Weekend Assignement. My Aunt Charlene (she is from the above-mentioned Kansas family and really ought to be blogging!) sent me a newspaper clipping from the Wichita Eagle. Santa's Workshop is returning! The son of the actor who played Santa will take over the role, and the man who did Kakeman is returning. They've recreated the old set and everything. That is really one of my fondest memories from traveling to Kansas.

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Karen Funk Blocher said:
Back in college the first time around I had a friend who worked double shifts on holidays at 7-11 or someplace similar. Seems to me if you have a reasonable home life, working on Christmas Day is less than idea. But my friend had a truly rotten home life, so it worked out! I'm glad you get to enjoy your family at home on Christmas!
Date: 12/19/2008 3:49:32 PM Date: 12/19/2008 3:49:32 PM

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Karen Funk Blocher said:
Back in college the first time around I had a friend who worked double shifts on holidays at 7-11 or someplace similar. Seems to me if you have a reasonable home life, working on Christmas Day is less than idea. But my friend had a truly rotten home life, so it worked out! I'm glad you get to enjoy your family at home on Christmas!
Date: 12/19/2008 3:49:32 PM Date: 12/19/2008 3:49:32 PM





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