Since we went on the road we have managed to be with family or friends every year at Christmas time.  The first year we spent Christmas with my sister and her family, and the next year was  Christmas with our youngest daughter in Monterey, California.  The next year we were selling Christmas trees and although we didn’t like the job we were surrounded by Christmasy things which was some consolation, and we got to have Christmas dinner with Cori’s family which was really nice of them. Last year we worked Amazon, but since we were finished on the 21st we were able to go to Columbus and I spent Christmas morning with my brother and his family and we stayed at Lee’s parents’ and were surrounded by amazing Christmas decorations.  So really every year we had some elements of Christmas, although they were certainly nothing like the huge family Christmases we used to have when our kids were young.

This year we made a conscious decision not to go back east and we knew we would be working through the holiday.  It’s interesting that for someone who was so into Christmas how fine I am with letting that go.  Perhaps it is the simplicity of our lifestyle, or the reality of the need to make money, but in either case I didn’t find myself being particularly bummed out that we were missing the festivities.  My life is just different now, and instead of focusing on what I am missing, I am grateful for what we have.  The weather is gorgeous for one thing, 70 degrees and sunny as of this writing, and we have a nice gate and a good company to work for. It’s really been very peaceful here.

I did decorate though.  It started out somewhat half-hearted because Lee went to a ton of trouble to get my ceramic Christmas tree out of the storage unit, so I should put it out.  Turns out we had some lights and a few other decorations though so I had ended up having some fun with it.

 

I will say that working the night shift was a bit of a bummer.  It was a beautiful night with a full moon and a pretty slow day but when the clock rolled over and hit 12:01 I was a little bummed. I did say Merry Christmas to Jack and gave him a piece of egg.  That sounds sad, and it did feel a little sad in that moment, but then I just kept going through my night.  It was my intention to upload my ebook as sort of a present to myself but the formatting wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be, so I decided to let that go and look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow. One of the drivers did stop and give me some homemade venison summer sausage which Lee absolutely loved.  It was very nice of him, and I was glad he did it, because aside from that it really was just like any other day.

Christmas day was a nice one because it was really slow (Lee only had 13 vehicles in 8 hours!) and we got to talk to our parents and our kids, which was nice.  We also had a special dinner of massive 1 1/2 lb ribeyes, and shrimp, and Jack got the bone on my ribeye which he REALLY liked.

 

 

 

 

Speaking of Jack, he’s been a real trooper about Christmas.  He doesn’t seem to get it but he was really great about letting Lee take pictures of him in a Santa hat and was a really good puppy when we took advantage of the slowness and gave him a nice clipping today.

 

 

And speaking of Santa hats, I got in on the action and wore one on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  No reason to not get into the holiday spirit a bit!

 

Overall it was a nice quiet day but of course we would rather be with family.  It was a conscious decision though so we can live with it.  The best part of the day was I finally got my ebook uploaded.  It takes up to three days to appear online and then I will be writing a post linking it and getting into more detail on how that all went.  It feels great to have it done though! Happy Holidays to everyone, and I hope you had a wonderful day.

(And finally, lest you think Jack is just a sweet harmless little fluffy puppy, here’s a few seconds of what it looks like when I got too close while he was enjoying that ribeye bone. He takes his meals as seriously as I do. – Lee)

 

---

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.