Traveling for Christmas

When I was a kid, I never had any reason to travel for Christmas. My grandparents, aunts, and uncles all live in the same area, most of them just a few minutes drive from my parents' house. In short, Christmas was an easy routine: open presents at home in the morning, visit one side of the family for lunch, and visit the other side of the family for dinner.

This is my second year traveling home for Christmas. Anyone who has moved away from home is likely familiar with this experience, but I suspect most people still live relatively close to where they grew up.

When you travel home, there's always too much to do.

I can never find time to do everything I want to do when I visit Louisiana. I need to visit my grandparents and other family. I need to visit my friends that I haven't seen in months to a year. I need to visit all those restaurants I used to visit all the time. I need to tell my stories of everything I've done since the last time I was home to everyone, and I need to hear everyone else's stories in turn.

And, because I'm a busy introvert, I need time alone to handle business stuff.

This year, as last year, I'm spending my holidays on a futon at my parents' house. I've got a little less than a week to spend quality time with everyone while not exhausting myself before I leave for MAGfest.

Yesterday I managed to spend a little time with everyone. Hopefully, over the next few days, I'll be able to expand on that time with each group. It'll never be enough but, then again, that's one of the best parts about living far from home: you value the time you're able to spend with the people there that much more.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll take a walk down to Price's Supermarket and get one of their awesome roast beef po-boys.