23 Dec Our First Christmas in the Frat House

The first Christmas Jill and I spent in our decrepit former frat house was a disaster. The house was still condemned property because we had failed our inspection that Septermber. That meant we were living in it illegally. I had thought that we’d be done with the house by Christmas and that everything would be clean and lovely. But, becasue I knew nothing about fixing up old houses, I was very wrong in my estimates of what was and wasn’t possible. That’s why I had invited my entier family to spend Christmas with us that year. I didn’t tell them that the house was still condemned property. I think I told my mother and brothers and their spouses that the house was still a bit “rough,” but that’s all. I figured we’d have such a good time, everybody wouldn’t pay much attention to the condition of the house. Oh, how wrong I was. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong that weekend. That’s my Christmas story.

I wrote about this in From Animal House to Our House and recently I’ve performed it as a comic monologue. That’s what I’m offering today, my recent performance at Baltimore’s “Stoop Stories,” broadcast on WYPR’s “The Signal.”

Here’s the video version, with lots of photos:

Our First Christmas In the Wrecked Frat House