Christmas Day Session
By Dan Scrutchfield
25 Dec 2008
All the presents are unwrapped, and the trash that was previously strewn about the living room floor has been picked up and thrown out. My brother goes back and zips into his 4-3 wetsuit and throws his new skimboard and surfboard in my car. Before he leaves, he grabs the finishing touch, an old Santa hat that has seen more than its fair share of Christmases. We arrive at the beach on the unusually warm holiday morning to find a few other people there with the same idea as us. Pulling the hat over his wetsuit hood, my brother dives into the frigid water, and for another year, we have continued our ritual. A week from now, we will do the same thing on New Year's Day. For the past 5 years, we have been celebrating Christmas in our own way. Few people have the chance to live at the beach, let alone get to go in the water on Christmas Day. Our philosophy is that we want to get one last session in before the end of the old year, then be the first to have one in the beginning of the new. As the sessions draw to a close, fingers and toes are frozen, the Santa hat is ruined, but in the end, we accomplish our goal. As we get in the car and return to our presents, we anxiously await next year.
1 response
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Andrea Cobler gave props (26 Dec 2008):
Great story and a really cool tradition. Hope you can continue for many years to come!!
