Post #128891 by Humuhumu on Fri, Dec 3, 2004 5:50 PM

My uncle Jay, who was a right bastard and complete asshole but I loved him anyhow, was in an accident on a construction site in the mid-80s that left him paralyzed from the waist down. While Jay was physically capable of leaving the house, with wheelchairs & an adapted van he could drive and the whole shebang, he pretty much didn't leave his house from the 80s until he passed away last year. He collected disability, laid in his bed all day, and spent most of his time buying ridiculous things from catalogs and constantly recording movies off of each of the three televisions that were always running in his apartment.

Since Jay couldn't/didn't leave his apartment, we had Christmas at his place for a few years.

Jay's apartment was dark, cluttered, and as I mentioned before, had TVs blaring constantly. Jay didn't particularly enjoy wearing clothes, so when he had visitors, he would "get dressed" by throwing a towel across his lap. For Christmas, he'd make it a festive seasonal towel, and every year, he could be counted on to point out that he had a new "Christmas outfit."

Since the apartment was rather cramped even without the family there, a tree wasn't practical... so every year, our "tree" was a string or two of Christmas lights tacked to the wall in a rough outline of a tree, not unlike a child might make.

So we spent our holiday huddled around the outline of an xmas tree, balancing a plate of mediocre cold food on our laps, trying to ignore the three different R-rated movies playing at once (for some reason, with the volume on), hoping and praying that Jay's Christmas outfit wouldn't fall off.

It was all pretty miserable, but on the plus side, at least we didn't argue.

Support the Hukilau! - Bid on items in the Hukilau auction!

[ Edited by: Humuhumu on 2004-12-03 17:51 ]