Christmas Cheer

First, I must say, Paquita is the most well behaved, awesome traveler ever. Humans included.

I got a bubble gum bath bar from Lush (thanks, Mrs. Batchley) that is making my entire apartment smell like candy. At first I thought, “What an awesome bar of soap!” Then I realized my apartment is just that small.

From my mom, I received a little bucket of her homemade chocolate chip cookies. You’d be jealous if you knew how awesome they were. My dad is in solitary confinement again, so I didn’t get a card this year. I’m sorry to not get to share his holiday greetings on this, his 2nd Christmas of 20 — if he lives that long — to be spent behind bars. Instead, here is last year’s card & my blog entry:

Holiday Greetings
Yesterday I received the first note from my incarcerated father since last May. He’s been busy, I guess. It was a Hallmark Christmas card. The front read, “God made all the nights and days and all the world to sing His praise.” The inside read, “The very sweetest song on earth once brought the news of Jesus’ birth – And as we sing His praise today, may you be blessed in every way.”

Then my dad wrote a warm and fuzzy Christmas note in his “deaf speak” handwriting that included this sentence, “I had been [in] solitary confinement four times since April for fighting with n*ggers cause me mad because stealings – all offenders are haters, thief, jealous, etc.”

Don’t you just want to pinch his cheeks he’s just so cute? You know you want him as a prison pen pal for the new year. Don’t lie.

Come on, he did care enough to send the very best!

So, yeah, no gifts from my “family” for the umpteenth year in a row and no card from my dad to let me know he is still alive means I had kind of a sucky Christmas.

After a short visit with Christian’s dad’s family, we all climbed into the car for another long car ride. I noticed a little Christmas gift bag I hadn’t seen before. I was confused before prying open the tag to see that it was for me and that it was from Father Jack, Christian’s uncle who has been, and is still, very ill. He snuck it into the car for me because he didn’t want anyone to know he had broken the “rules” of Secret Santa by buying gifts for anyone other than his chosen recipient. Inside was a wintery coffee mug and marshmallow Santa.

My heart nearly exploded from the kindness.

I know he’s a priest and so he gets paid to be kind to people like me, but still, he doesn’t even know about my family “situation”. So then I felt bad for feeling bad about not getting anything for Christmas and not having a place to call home because I have the best gifts ever — every single day.

—Kambri
A coffee mug and a marshmallow Santa!