My Christmas story

You never know when life will turn on a dime. One second everything’s normal; the next, there is upheaval.

On the Wednesday before Christmas, I was enjoying being a “classroom dad” in my son James’ kindergarten class for their holiday party. I was helping a bunch of very sugared-up and Christmas-excited kids with some arts and crafts when the cell phone buzzed in the pocket of my jeans.

A quick glance at the missed calls and texts finally revealed a family crisis brewing down in New Jersey. My elderly mother suffered a fall, which turned out to be a compound fracture in her femur (the largest bone in our body).

My mom is 79; my dad is 83. God bless them, but they are OLD. And as many middle-aged folks like me know, part of the deal at this stage of our lives becomes raising your own family while at the same time caring for elderly parents. In no way would I ever complain or whine about this; in fact, it is a blessing to have parents live such long lives.

But jarring news like this is tough at any time, much less the holidays.

Fortunately, my mom was healthy enough to withstand 3.5 hours of surgery on her wayward leg. She (and all of us, as a family) has a long road ahead as she relearns how to walk and to cope with the unrelenting march of aging.

We celebrated the holidays together earlier this week in New Jersey, but it was bittersweet with mom in the hospital. She’ll be there awhile, and as a result, I will most likely be driving a groove into the Thruway and I-287 over the coming months and years, helping my parents in their old age.

The rest of our holiday season at home has been wonderful. The kids are at that magical age for Christmas. And Santa brought my wife the iPad that she wanted. As a friend of mine said, “when Mama’s happy, the whole house is happy.” Indeed.

Me? I’m easy to shop for, because I generally want and/or need nothing. A new book, some free coffee vouchers at Stewart’s and a new umbrella for me to destroy at a windy practice day or lose at some faraway meet, and I’m a happy man.

So that’s my Christmas story for 2011. It gives you some idea as to the lack of posts during the past two weeks. This is usually a lean time of year for posts anyway. I will try to get back in the swing of things after the New Year.