Christmas comes but once a year and for the last two years it came not at all for me...
I was with Stephen Christopher Harris last Christmas enduring great cruelty. But as perhaps the only day in my life more significant than Christmas approaches, I find I'm celebrating Christmas in July...
In November 2006, Stephen told me that he didn't celebrate Christmas (owing to his being raised as a Seventh Day Adventist). And last year, we didn't celebrate Christmas at all. Although I suspect he enjoyed himself at Celgard's Christmas party... when he came home that evening, he offered me the last piece of candy from a box he got as a party favor. Nevertheless, despite what he'd say about Christmas, I always found it quite ironic that he lived in a veritable Christmas Palace here in Detroit.
Mike Fisher goes all out for Christmas. He hires professional decorators to come into his mansion and transform it with 15 foot Christmas trees and evergreen boughs and garlands everywhere... Angels and holly, mistletoe and golden cherubs adorn every niche and console. You'd expect Santa to descend the stairs carrying the baby Jesus.... When I saw the house that first year, I was dumbstruck. Yet Stephen told me he didn't care for Christmas at all, though he celebrated with Mike every year... He even left me on Christmas Day 2006 to take Mike his Christmas present, having discussed with me his struggle in deciding what to get him that year.
That first Christmas together, Stephen did buy me a gift... a pair of gloves (which he took from me when I left Charlotte in January), a set ear warmers, and a bag of coconut candies (yes, I still have some). But two weeks before that Christmas of 2006, he set a spending limit on our gifts to each other, I spent exactly the amount he prescribed on a gift he didn't take to his place until July 7, 2007, exactly two years ago today, when he made me a sacred promise...
In November 2006, Stephen told me that he didn't celebrate Christmas (owing to his being raised as a Seventh Day Adventist). And last year, we didn't celebrate Christmas at all. Although I suspect he enjoyed himself at Celgard's Christmas party... when he came home that evening, he offered me the last piece of candy from a box he got as a party favor. Nevertheless, despite what he'd say about Christmas, I always found it quite ironic that he lived in a veritable Christmas Palace here in Detroit.
Mike Fisher goes all out for Christmas. He hires professional decorators to come into his mansion and transform it with 15 foot Christmas trees and evergreen boughs and garlands everywhere... Angels and holly, mistletoe and golden cherubs adorn every niche and console. You'd expect Santa to descend the stairs carrying the baby Jesus.... When I saw the house that first year, I was dumbstruck. Yet Stephen told me he didn't care for Christmas at all, though he celebrated with Mike every year... He even left me on Christmas Day 2006 to take Mike his Christmas present, having discussed with me his struggle in deciding what to get him that year.
That first Christmas together, Stephen did buy me a gift... a pair of gloves (which he took from me when I left Charlotte in January), a set ear warmers, and a bag of coconut candies (yes, I still have some). But two weeks before that Christmas of 2006, he set a spending limit on our gifts to each other, I spent exactly the amount he prescribed on a gift he didn't take to his place until July 7, 2007, exactly two years ago today, when he made me a sacred promise...
"Fear Eats the Soul"
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