I had come to hate Christmas, it wasn't the day that bothered me or even the holiday season, it was my family. I don't think I have ever had a normal Christmas dealing with them, even when I was a kid, I could even remember craziness when I was as young as 8. For instance, the year I was in the 3rd grade, our tree was stolen....not the gifts, THE TREE, by my Aunt Trace. When I went to bed Christmas eve, the tree was in the corner of the living room in our 3 bedroom house and there were plenty of gifts underneath it. The next morning, The gifts were still there but our tree was missing, Our gifts were lined up under the window. I remember being confused as to why my aunt would rob us for our tree and not the gifts under it, to this day it still doesn't make sense.

But that was my family, Nothing they did made sense, This year I was determined to have a peaceful Christmas, one without my psychotic family members. Just my cats, Miss noodles and Mr Jingles, and I. It was the first day in December and I watched from the window as the snow fell outside in nice big lumps, promising a white Christmas this year. I walked towards the box that held the prelit fake tree, I didn't have the patience to string up lights on the tree itself so I bought a prelit tree last year, I grimaced slightly as I leaned down and pulled it from the box. I placed it in the corner of the living room near the outlet, in my one bedroom apartment and plugged it in, smiling when the tree shown it's colorful display of lights.

I busied myself with decorating the rest of the small living room, then moved on towards the kitchen, until my entire house was decorated with tinsel and strings of white lights, The colored lights were on the tree, Only. Next I reached down into the box of my Christmas themed snow globes, It was widely believed by my small group of friends that I had a unhealthy obsession with them, it wasn't true. I had over 300 snow globes though, so maybe.... I was.

I walked around placing each of them around the house, fixing them until I was satisfied. I was slightly OCD, that I would admit. Afterward I flopped down on my ratty green couch that I refused to throw away, much to my mom's dismay and turned on the TV, flipping through the channels I noticed the news was on with a breaking story.

This Just in, a fire which destroyed a local family owned business overnight is presumed to have been started intentionally, authorities believe this evening, The suspect Charlie Jamerson is in custody and being currently held without bail. More details on this story as it develops.

I shook my head, "Uncle Charlie" I muttered under my breath, When someone's uncle is arrested for setting a business on fire, It may be surprising or devastating to most people, I wasn't surprised in the least. This was not the first time he had set a business on fire, nor was the first time he had been arrested for doing so. He seemed to take joy in setting things on fire, and they were usually things that meant a lot to people in the community, usually business and on occasion houses.

Already knowing my overly emotional mother watched the evening news, I anticipated her call taking slow deep breaths to calm myself enough to deal with her. Ten minutes later when my phone rang, I was in a calm place, I answered the call with a quick "Hello mom", without glancing at the screen, there was no need I knew who it was once I heard the sniffles in background, presumably my grandmother who lived with my parents.

"Cherri, You need to come over Immediately" my mother wailed into the phone, "I can't tonight, I have to work in the morning" I slightly hesitated before saying, inwardly I regretted the words almost as soon as they left my mouth already knowing what they would lead to. "Cherri, Your uncle Charlie Has been arrested and he's being held without bail, this ruins Christmas" she continued to wail, "Mom, calm down, breath.. Okay Christmas is still 24 days away, anything can happen in that time" I explained, attempting to get her to calm down.

After about 40 minutes of speaking with her and then another 10 minutes on with Grandma, I was exhausted and ready for bed.

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