I think it’s safe to begin the final countdown to Christmas Day. In the Pomeroy house we’ve been counting down for months, but we’re now just over a week away from the big day. I have always loved Christmas. Obviously, when I was a kid it was about getting some presents. Although I was never the kid who got a lot of presents, the ones that I did get were always special. As with most motocross kids, we get so much during the year that almost every day feels like Christmas.
The best part about Christmas when I was younger was that my Dad would always pick one gift for us (I have an older sister and a younger brother) and hide it on Christmas Eve. Then he would create a series of notes with clues to find that gift on Christmas morning. Each clue would send you to a different note that was not only scattered around in our house, but outside as well. Sometimes they were easy but sometimes they weren’t. Since we lived on 75 acres, my Dad had a lot of options for hiding notes. One time I remember seeing my sister struggling through knee-deep snow looking for a note that was stapled to a stake that was located on one of the jumps on my track. By the time she travelled to the note and back, she probably covered about a half mile in distance. She was not too impressed. If I recall correctly, in perfect big sister fashion, she blamed me and my brother for everything. Anyway, after about 7 or 8 notes you would find your special gift and all would be good. Last year I started doing the same for our son and of course he loves it. Lucky for him we live in town so my note hiding options are limited to our small lot.
As I grew older, Christmas became more and more about family and hanging out, especially after my sister moved out and my brother went away to school. They would come home for Christmas and we would always have a huge touch football game. We would invite my cousins and friends so there would be around seven or eight players per team. My brother and I would always be the QBs, and most of the time I would end up with the better of the two teams so victory usually went in my favour. We would play for a few hours until we were tired or cold, and then we’d go inside and bench race about the game. It was a lot of fun, especially listening to my brother reminding his team how much they let him down on the field for the rest of the day.
Fast forward to present day, and as you can imagine, Christmas is all about our six year old son Ayrton. This weekend we went out and bought one of those “Elf on a Shelf” to keep a watchful eye on everyone in our house. The idea for this elf has to have come from a parent of a little monster child because the elf is supposed to watch over your child and then give progress reports back to his boss, Santa. This elf also has magic powers so each night he moves to a different place to get a better view for the following day. It’s so funny to see Ayrton come downstairs in the morning and spend five minutes looking for the elf’s new vantage point. Oh man, to be young again and to be naïve enough to believe that a tiny, little fake boy elf is going to somehow communicate back to the North Pole that you’re being bad or good, which will determine the amount of gifts you get. Like I said before, Christmas is awesome and I just love it. I actually dread the day that Ayrton stops believing in all of this because it really is a precious time of life, and also very entertaining.
Hopefully everyone caught the 2014 Monster Energy SX Preview show yesterday, even though it was a little boring. It would’ve been nice to see more current video clips of the riders on their new bikes, especially Chad Reed on a Kawasaki. Anyway, it’s always nice to see Supercross on television and it certainly increased my excitement for Anaheim One in a few weeks. I am picking James Stewart for the win at round one in the Supercross class, and providing Dean Wilson rides the West Coast Lites class, I’m picking him for the win and the championship. Dean looks like a rider on a mission for 2014 so hopefully we will see him win multiple championships.
Well, that is it for me this week. As you can tell I’m very excited for Christmas and for the New Year. With the snow that we have received this past week, it looks as though all the ski hills will be open over the Christmas break. Also, I saw some snowmobiles out yesterday so hopefully their season can begin as well. It’s winter and although I hate it, we must try to make to most of it. Have a great week and if you still have to fight the crowds at the mall to get some shopping done, remember…elbows up!!
