A Facebook Best Christmas Ever

By Ted Escobar

After Christmas a few years ago, I tried to work the Monday after Christmas and was not very successful. While my brain kept saying "work," the rest of me kept saying "Why? I like Christmas mode better."

I did better on Tuesday but, still, I struggled to shake the relaxed Christmas feeling.

Usually I work during holiday periods. This time, I did maybe a little. Mostly, I sat in my easy chair a lot, watched football a lot and visited on Facebook a lot. And I watched movies.

Saturday I started writing stories for the next issue of the paper. So, naturally, Friday night I had nightmares of an Internet that would not deliver information from my sources, sources I couldn't find or information that was sent but lost.

I'm okay now. The toughest thing to do was to think of a column to write about the latest Christmas-New Year's experience.

It was fun. I visited with siblings, cousins, nephews, nieces and grandchildren from all over the country – on Facebook. It wasn't long ago I had no interest in the service.

Yes, as I think back on it, Facebook is what made that Christmas the most fun. It was like having friends and family in my home, or me in theirs, every day for about two weeks. What's even better is that I can expect visits every day from now on.

I believe I've communicated with niece Nicki Sams of Othello more in the that month than in the last five years. Same thing with Stephanie Martinez and Bobbi Gonzalez, both in the Seattle area. Other than blood, what I've found they have in common is a great sense of humor.

Then there are some new friends I'm just getting to know, like a young woman from El Paso who is a cousin of one of my cousins in Montana. Everything she has written so far that involves my name has been kind.

And I've started communicating with Mary Rodriguez of Billings, Montana. When she wrote about friending me, I had no idea who she was. I thought she was my cousin's daughter and clicked "confirm." Turns out she's my first cousin, and I've always known her name to be Luisa.

I'm still waiting for her to explain it all to me, but I am unconcerned. She has written several times now, and she's been most kind every time.

The best find on FB was cousin Jose Hernandez in Arizona, whom we call Güero. He's one of my favorite cousins but, it seems, after every time we meet, we lose all communication for years. Now we are communicating just about every day.

Yes, this was one of my best Christmases ever. I felt love in every conversation. Just what Jesus ordered.

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