A normal Christmas

Pam looked around. There wasn’t anything particularly unusual about this holiday gathering. Her mom was in the kitchen, talking to herself as usual, as she finished the last-minute preparations for a dinner that smelled delicious. Pam’s brother Greg was fussing with the nativity set, as he did every year. He had definite ideas about which way the figurines should face (if the wise men saw the star in the East, they should be coming from the West). Aunt Joanie was watching him with the same vacant, vaguely unhappy air she always had, while Uncle Gary was silently watching Aunt Joanie, as he always did.

As usual, the television was ablaze with some football game or another. A fire crackled in the fireplace, making the room delightfully cozy and also just slightly too warm, a temperature Pam would always associate with Christmas. The tree stood in the same spot in the living room as it always did, with the old-fashioned angel on top smiling benignly down upon them all.

Sitting on the couch, Pam’s dad watched the game with his standard level of avid interest, although he had a habit of looking briefly toward the kitchen every time his wife’s low mutterings got louder. Seated next to him was Pam’s date for the holiday. Even that was normal, although for many, many years that seat had been filled by someone else.

At that moment, Jim looked up. He smiled, and Pam could tell that he felt perfectly at home there with her family. She returned the smile. This Christmas was anything but typical. It was the best Christmas of her life.