Christmas is often about your past and the traditions that filled your home.
It is time with family and friends and filling up with cheer.
But sometimes... sometimes Christmas is just where you are at.
My Christmas is Juneau this season.
I am going to unwrap Juneau.
I am going to traverse glaciers.
Travel over the hundreds of trails and possibly make a new one.
I will dodge whales and seals, not pet porcupine, watch ptarmigan change colors from dark to white and then back again.
I will pedal a bike as far as Douglas Island will let me and around the blocks of Thane and down the corridors of the Back Loops and over the hills past Eagle Beach.
I will stare into the window displays downtown until the little kid in me screams gleefully.
I am not going to be overwhelmed with charities... I will pick one that influenced me, such as the Swedish chapter of Ripening Pickled Herring.
I am going to sing carols far into the night (in my shower).
I will watch old black and white holiday movies.
I will wave at passing cars like we did in Petersburg, sled down a muskeg hill, play tackle football with my dog, sip hot chocolate in front of a fire, and laugh at my brother’s jokes.
I will lie on my back in the snow and watch the stars at night.
And I will wish all my friends and family, and those I do not know, a very Merry Christmas.
