Each year I get the same question: what will I be doing for Christmas?
Will I be returning to B.C. for Christmas? Or will I be spending it out here?
Due to the hectic nature of the Mercury’s publication schedule in and around Christmas, it’s best to spend Dec. 25 in southeast Saskatchewan, with dinner at the Leguee Family Farm on the correction line between Fillmore and Cedoux.
So I get to spend Christmas on the farm this year, although it’s not the farm I would have preferred.
It would have been my last chance to spend Christmas at Wil-a-Way Farm – the horse farm in Aldergrove, B.C., that my parents purchased back in 1999. As I documented earlier this year, my folks put the farm on the market 20 years after moving there. For both of them, it’s the longest they have ever spent in one residence.
Back in mid-October, they accepted on offer on this quiet slice of paradise that’s in the country, but close enough to the city that you have all the necessary amenities nearby.
I’ll admit that when I was in B.C. for a visit in August, I didn’t think it would sell so quickly. I thought there was a 50-50 chance that the listing would expire, and I would get at least one more holiday out there.
It took several weeks for someone to seriously look at the place, but apparently when she did, she was sold on it.
It means mom and dad now have a frantic few weeks to get everything packed and moved and cleaned before they move to a new home in an urban setting about 15 minutes from where they live now.
It means one last Christmas on the farm before they move.
If I was one who was fixated on sentimentality, I might have shunned my commitments to the office and flown out to B.C. for that last Christmas at the farm.
But it would have meant a pricey airline ticket for a five-day or six-day vacation. Mom and Dad are busy on the farm in the winter months at the best of times because it’s the offseason for thoroughbred racing; they’ll be even busier this year preparing for the move. And worst of all, if I go out there, I might get put to work.
(I had to sort through boxes of old books and I had to clean out my old bedroom closet during my trip to B.C. in August. Let’s just say it wasn’t as much fun as having a beer on the patio on a sunny afternoon day).
Cooking I can handle. Maybe not cooking the turkey, but I can do a nice supper the night before Christmas Eve. Cleaning I can handle.
But on my vacation, I can think of things I’d much rather do than pack boxes. It rates right up there with shovelling horse manure.
It also means mom and dad won’t be out here for Christmas. Two years ago, they spent Christmas out here for the first time in two decades. An extreme cold advisory was issued the day they arrived. It remained in place until the day after they left.
I don’t think they’ll be out here for Christmas again any time soon.
But at least I have family out here for Christmas. I consider myself pretty fortunate to have that. I get to spend Christmas Eve at my grandma’s in Weyburn. I’ll open Christmas gifts there, too, then go out to the farm near Fillmore for Christmas supper, come back to Weyburn after supper and then come back to Estevan for Boxing Day.
Since mom’s entire side of the family lives within 75 minutes of the Leguee farm, there’ll be lots of people there. Like any family, there are people who I enjoy spending time with more than others. Some I love to visit with; others give you reason to wish you had earplugs.
Boxing Day in Estevan is a much better experience than Boxing Day in B.C. If I want to go shopping, I will. I don’t have to worry about long lineups or parking lot disasters or the other headaches associated with shopping on Dec. 26 in a larger market.
I do consider myself fortunate to be in this situation. There are a lot of people out there who won’t have a place to spend Christmas this year. They don’t have a family to visit or a place to go. Maybe they’re working elsewhere and can’t make it home.
Those who invite a lonely co-worker or a friend to spend Christmas at their place should be applauded. But it’s not something that should be expected of them. If they want to spend Christmas with just their family, that’s OK.
So I look forward to Christmas on the farm this year. And I know that even though I might not be in B.C. for Christmas for that last Christmas on the farm, I’ll at least have a farm where I can spend Christmas in the future.
(And a pretty good family to be with).
