As many of you may know in 2016 I met Sarah on Steemit and within two years we were married and I moved to Britain.
What I haven’t really talked about was how I left my family behind, which wouldn’t have been that big of a deal because I assumed that we could always visit, but then Covid happened!.. And not only that, I came down with a condition where I have too much fluid on my brain that caused blindness, hearing loss and it could be fatal for me to fly due to the increase in cabin pressure in planes.
Before I left America, I was helping to raise my niece and nephew, I stayed with them for at least six months out of every year, so they wouldn’t end up in daycare or raised by strangers over the summers and while their parents were out of town on business.
At the time of the wedding, they were at that age were they were both driving and they didn’t really need me anymore, but none of us expected that we would be apart for so long and even though this is illogical, I kinda felt like I abandoned them.
So after four years, the whole family decided to spend Christmas with Sarah and me by embarking on a Griswald-style European Vacation, where literally everything has gone wrong, due to all the newly announced Covid rules.
They’ve been through hell trying to get to Britain, denied access to some countries, missed flights, lost reservations and are forced to pay thousands in fees and for new accommodations, but against all odds, they finally arrived on Christmas Eve.
I know there is a Grinch on the line for this post, but I hate to say it, but this is sort of on the back burner, something I’m writing during bathroom breaks, because I haven’t had more than a few moments to myself since they arrived and there is no way that I will be able to get Sarah to edit this one.
At the moment, Sarah’s family is here, getting to know my family for the first time. We just finished eating and opening presents and now everyone is gearing up to play Cards Versus Humanity and Pinctionary. My niece is very gregarious, so she tends to do most of the talking, with all her crazy stories about college life.
My nephew on the other hand seems kinda shy, but once you get him alone, everything comes rushing out and it’s usually some sort of mischief that his parents aren’t even aware of. I haven’t had the chance to get him away from the crowd yet, to figure out what’s been going on with him and I’m dying to know the real story of what he’s actually been up to.
Unfortunately my mom couldn’t make this trip and it’s not something that I really want to write about, because she has health issues and I have no idea when I’ll be able to see her again.
The main present was seeing my family and this trip was all of their Christmas presents to us and to each other. Although they didn’t arrive empty handed because my mom sent some computer components with them, so I could build a desktop pc, because my vision is no longer good enough for laptops. Sarah and me bought each other Punks on Hive as an early Christmas present, I gave her Viviana Manning and she gave me Aliza Hubbard, which I totally got the better end of that deal.

For the rest of the family, Sarah did most of the Christmas shopping and I was on wrapping duty so I took all the presents and combined them to wrap them into funny designs like a machine gun; a few lobsters, one with a broken leg, like you find in the grocery store; a pyramid and other weird things that made everyone laugh.
Family means everything to me and they’re here, right now, so I need to go and enjoy Christmas with them. I hope all of you are having a happy Christmas too.