With a Ho! Ho! Ho! and a Hey! Hey! Hey! it's Santa's super sleigh (Will Freeman's dad)

As you know I'm a fan of Medium.com and the various groups I follow via that site. One such group is called Coffeelicious. 

Recently they presented a writing prompt that I thought I'd have a go at.

Call it my Christmas message if you like.

The idea is pretty simple - write a Christmas letter to someone you miss in five paragraphs.

Dear DMP 

Christmas, as you know, is a difficult time for me. First I have to get through early December (your anniversary this year made it 32 years) and there are the usual Christmas decisions about family celebrations and when I look around and don't see too many of my family left my jealous streak emerges.

So what have you missed? Well in the early days - our own family celebrations. The first one in 1983 was just me and the gorgeous Miss Smith. Along came Keegan just in time for Christmas 1984, then Adam just in time to get in on the Santa sack action in 1986. The expansion continued when we had five of us to feed for Christmas dinner in 1989, then a fulsome table of six by the end of 1991. By then Christmases had settled into a routine of the usual morning scenes, which you would have loved. Sometimes they included grandad and your old friend, Nita.

We made our own traditions and routines: visits to see Santa, holiday meals with the outlaws, and trifle bowls that multiplied as the years progressed. And then suddenly having the six of us at a Christmas table became a rarity and life went on (within me and without you) as the kids developed their own lives and their own Christmas routines.

I catch myself looking at your photographs and then wondering what you would make of my life since you’ve been gone. I think you’d approve of all the big stuff: the life decisions and the battles fought along the way. That’s important to me. 

And so to this - the toughest part of the letter to write: the last paragraph. Again, this Christmas is going to be just me and the gorgeous former Miss Smith. We’ll be away from our family, a long way away, in Snowdonia, but thinking about them all, without a doubt. And I’ll be thinking about you, and getting through another one without you as best I can. 

Love – as always - your buddy – Warren.