Guess I’m just a big kid at Christmas

Dear Santa …

My column appears in the fourth edition of each month’s Review. Being that’s next month’s will appear the day after Christmas, I’m writing about my favorite time of the year this week.

I guess it is somewhat appropriate that it appears in our Thanksgiving edition. So, to those who believe nothing Christmas-related should be seen or discussed before Thanksgiving, my apologies. But my column, my rules.

For better or worse, I’m fairly active on Facebook. Among my Facebook family and friends, I’m known for a handful of things… my love for Disneyland, bacon, Jennifer Aniston and Christmas. In order to avoid losing my Man Card, I’ll also throw in my love for the Raiders, Golden Knights, Lakers and A’s.

As I’m writing this, I am asking myself one question: Why does a 55-year-old guy who has no children and is single love Christmas so much? I somewhat answered my own question with that description.

Growing up here in Boulder City, my family always had a nice Christmas. My mom did all the gift buying, which meant my dad was just as surprised as we were with what we got.

Our tradition was to open wrapped gifts on Christmas Eve and then Santa’s unwrapped gifts the next morning.

But it wasn’t until I was well into adulthood that I really began enjoying the entire holiday season, which in my house has always included Thanksgiving. My house, my rules.

When I was married and living in Hawaii, I had two great step-kids. My wife at the time also loved Christmas and indulged my desire to have our house look as though Santa’s Workshop had exploded. One year we had three Christmas trees and every nook and cranny had some type of Christmas decoration. See, when you live in Hawaii and it’s 80 degrees during the holiday season, you tend to overcompensate with decorating since Santa is wearing Bermuda shorts, sitting on the beach sipping a mai tai.

Our family tradition was to eat dinner, the kids would get to open one present, I’d pour some eggnog and we’d all watch the classic, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” on Christmas Eve.

Being the big kid at heart that I am, I was the first in bed and would wake up every hour to see how close to 5 a.m. it was. That was the time each Christmas morning I’d spring from the bed to see what’s the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash as I tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. I digress.

Since my divorce 13 years ago, I’ve relied upon my five nieces and nephews to help fill that void of not having children around at Christmas and seeing the holiday through their eyes.

The five of them are awesome but now that they are ages 15 to 22, they are no longer in that cute, present-receiving age. Meaning, they prefer cash or gift cards. Boring but I get it.

On that topic, I will share one of my proudest Uncle Ron Christmas moments. When my youngest niece, Alyssa, was about 10, I saw this small cotton candy maker that I thought she’d like. I thought I’d throw it past my sister to see if was OK to get it. She said, “hold on a second.” She then texted me Alyssa’s Christmas list and No. 1 was a cotton candy maker. It was fate. While I love telling that story with much pride, I often leave out the fact that it caught fire after just a few uses. Each year since, I ask Alyssa, who is now a sophomore in college in Hawaii, if she wants another cotton candy maker. She indulges me with a laugh and politely declines.

This year I decorated the second weekend of November. My dear friend, Jacqui, came to visit from Minnesota and I promised her I would decorate before her arrival. She loved it and appreciated the effort.

Without sounding like a Hallmark movie, sometimes I like to have just the tree lights on and listen to Christmas music.

It’s my happy time of the year as I try and forget the stress, sadness or anything else going on in my life and simply enjoy the moment.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and save a piece of pumpkin pie for me.