Merry Christmas 2025

Nestled snugly in his Florida retirement digs old Soapy was kind of oblivious to just how close Christmas was. As anyone who ever met him knew he sure wasn’t a Scrooge when it came to giving and sharing holiday cheer. But after two years of retirement he’d finally gotten into his new lifestyle (where every day seemed like the weekend). And with no cold winds or snow to remind him, he’d flat lost track of how close the big day was!

He and the Misses had already shopped for Soapy Junior’s brood and had shipped their Christmas gift load north weeks ago. Soapy had even stashed her Christmas gift hidden in a closet weeks ago. But still he was bummed that he’d not kept better track of how close the big day was. 

Given the holiday business rush back home Junior and his brood couldn’t come south and with chances of bad weather Soapy and the Misses couldn’t drive North. So that meant Christmas without the family to celebrate it with.  

As he pondered his problem, he hit on a way to make the mid-course correction. One that could make next Christmas maybe both memorable and perhaps even better. He cracked opened the old laptop, searched the for cruises and booked a late June “half-Christmas” cruise for the whole Soapy gang. That way they could celebrate the next one together – even if it was exactly 183 days early.

In the meantime, he’d visit the local nursing home that he and his neighbors had adopted and try to bring a bit of Christmas cheer to the residents there – many of whom would otherwise celebrate the holiday apart from their loved ones. In the meantime, he’d settle for Christmas with a nice steaming cup of morning coffee on the patio with the Misses and a phone call to the kids later that day.