When I moved south to go to school, everyone told me I was going to love my first Christmas down south.
I spent my first Christmas there, but I couldn’t figure out what was so fun with it.
When I lived up north, we would go skiing and ice skating over the holidays. Mom and dad always rented a cabin near the ski slopes and we spent most of the day on the slopes. We would go back to the cabin and sit around the fireplace drinking hot chocolate while mom made dinner. I went to a pool party on Christmas Eve, but I didn’t have any fun. They had Christmas lights up, but it wasn’t the same when you were having a BBQ and swimming at midnight. I asked my host family if it ever got cold down here. He said it gets cold for a couple of weeks. Last year, they had temperatures in the forties at night for a little while. Forty wasn’t cold when you came from the north. I wanted to go ie skating and skiing, but they said it couldn’t be done. Christmas morning, we sat around the Christmas tree with the air conditioning on. It was already seventy-five, and no one seemed to notice. The only reason the air conditioning was on, was for me. I was too hot to breathe and wearing my shorts while everyone else was wearing sweatshirts and jeans. I felt like a fish out of water. This year, I am going back home for the holidays. I wanted to sit near a fireplace that gave off heat. I wanted to turn the thermostat up to make it toasty, and not reset the air conditioning unit. I know I won’t be staying here after graduation.