Posted by:
ExMoBandB
(
)
Date: December 26, 2014 05:53AM
One Christmas, my husband called me on the phone, from another state, to tell me he was leaving me and the children, would not pay child support or alimony, didn't want to hear from us, didn't care what happened to the children. The children and I were up in a mountain cabin, waiting for him to join us, but he just left us there, snowed in, with power going on and off. I was from California, and I thought we all were going to freeze to death. It was very dramatic. My children were very young, and I didn't ruin their Christmas--and I never did tell them their father was leaving THEM, and not just me. They found out after 4 years of not hearing one word from him. I lived in the moment. We had paper, scissors, crayons, glue, tape, and made decorations. I had a few gifts and some canned food purchased before the storm. We hiked down the road to a Christmas tree farm, and bought a tree, and dragged it back up the hill. I got some firewood, and we had to snuggle in front of the fireplace a few nights. The kids remember that as a beautiful, old-fashioned picture-book Christmas.
Another bad Christmas was when my ex decided to fly our children to Las Vegas to spend Christmas with him and his nasty girlfriend. The children didn't want to go, because they were strangers, and the littlest one was afraid to go on the airplane. They were brave, and took care of each other. Dad and girlfriend dropped them off at the airport to come home, around noon, 3 hours before their flight was scheduled. Their flight was delayed because of snow in SLC, and they were alone at the airport until 3:00 am. The flight was bumpy, stormy, and most of the passengers were air sick. I had turned down invitations, thinking my children would be home, so I spent Christmas alone with my cats, worrying about my kids.
Only two bad Christmases, in a lifetime, is pretty good. This Christmas my children came over in the morning, having to travel less than a mile in 6 inches of beautiful fresh snow. One son and his wife skied over. We unwrapped presents, played with the toys and games, played in the show, shoveled the walkways, ate goodies, cheese, sausages, roast beef, shrimp, California oranges, ice cream snowballs, and chocolate all day--no bothering with a big dinner. The grandchildren who could walk got skis, and I sang Christmas carols to the baby, who liked that better than any of the toys. If I could have foreseen such a happy future for us all, the bad times wouldn't have been so upsetting.