The World According To Chris Brewer

The cold weather triggers it for me. In my mind I see pictures, displays and brightly lit landscapes of sheer beauty. I get these rushes of excitement that course through my body and I am overtaken by uncontrollable urges to act upon those feelings. I cannot contain myself.

I’m talking about my excitement about Christmas, you sick people!!! What else did you think I was referencing??? Geez, get your minds out of the gutter.

My mind has already started revving about the Christmas season and all the stuff I want to do. I’ve missed three out of the last four Christmases with my friends and family, and this year I’M GOING OVERBOARD in my Christmas excitement. Not that I want gifts or anything like that, but I want to give a ton of gifts to my family and friends, send out Christmas cards to everyone, bake cookies with Mom and Aftan, walk in the cold rain in Portland, dodge my way through crowds at malls while shopping, yeah, that’s my idea of Christmas.

I got Aftan all fuzzy and excited about the holiday too. So much so that she coerced me into ordering advance tickets to the Oregon Ballet Theater’s production of The Nutcracker Suite at Portland’s Keller Auditorium. I think we’re going December 16 or something like that. Crap, that means I have to dress up…

We’re also gonna live it up and see everything that Portland has to offer Christmas-related, such as driving under a ginormous Christmas lights display at Portland International Raceway, lights and decorations at the Pittock Mansion, walking through The Grotto, and a host of other stuff. We’ll bake cookies and drive through Longview/Kelso, St. Helens, Scappoose, etc. looking at Christmas lights and sharing much needed time with each other. It’s gonna be awesome.

Plus I’m considering going all out and buying a LIVING Christmas tree to put in my apartment. I’m also going to watch all the favorite movies and TV shows related to Christmas.

On top of all this, I finally get to spend Christmas Eve, Day and a few days afterward WITH MY OWN FAMILY. I cannot wait to spend Christmas with my family in their brand new house in Republic, Missouri. That will be amazing to experience Springfield at Christmas time, carry on family traditions such as baking sugar cookies and decorating them as our favorite people (hey Dad, remember my Uncle Jim Snowman???) and listen to the old Christmas cassettes and CDs I grew up listening to while building stuff out of Lincoln Logs with Jason. Ah, what good times. Mom baking her tail off, Dad figuring out how to set up the fake Christmas tree, Jason playing Halo and me messing around with everything at once. It’s gonna be a good holiday.

Then on New Year’s Day, Aftan and I celebrate our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of being together. Amazing how God brought us together, while I was in Iraq, no less, and when we finally saw each other for the first time in four years this July, it was like we had been best friends for our entire lives. It continues…we’re going to the coast and enjoying it in wintertime for our anniversary. It’s going to be great. As the song from Mary Poppins goes, “It’s a jolly holiday with Aftan…”

Can’t believe I skipped over Thanksgiving. I’m more than excited to spend that holiday with Aftan and her family, watch some football and gear up for the CIVIL WAR between the beloved Oregon Ducks and the Oregon State University Beavers.

I’d say my excitement for the upcoming holidays is justified considering I was getting shot at while riding across Iraq in up-armored vehicles at this time last year. I’m so blessed and thankful to get the oppportunity to finally enjoy a good holiday with the ones I love.

So I think I’ve set a Guinness World Record for Earliest Christmas Spirit Exhibition. You should get into it too.