News

December 24, 2009

Everyone has a Christmas tale to tell

By Bill O'Boyle boboyle@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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Stockings hung by the fireplace with care. Yuletide carols sung by a choir. Kids bundled up like Eskimos. We all have our own Christmas stories.

And some pop up unexpectedly and become part of future celebrations.

Six years ago, Tony Kravitz, 28, of Laflin, was rushing home to Pennsylvania after spending some time in Florida. It was important to Kravitz that he not miss this Christmas because his brother was journeying home to their mother’s wonderful dinner as well.

Mother Nature had plans to dump crippling snow that had Kravitz watching the clock to see if he was going to make it on time to mom’s dinner table in Laflin.

“I was supposed to fly back early Christmas Day,” Kravitz said. “I got to Cincinnati and I thought I was going to make it.”

Then came the snow.

And then the delays.

He spoke to his sister in New Jersey who suggested he come there for Christmas.

“I got a flight out of Cincinnati to New Jersey, but halfway there we were redirected back to Cincinnati.”

He didn’t get to New Jersey and didn’t make it home, either.

He spent the night in a Holiday Inn in Cincinnati – alone.

But Kravitz’s mom refused to have Christmas dinner without him, and the family reunited and celebrated on Dec. 26.

“It was great; Dec. 27 is my birthday, so we celebrated Christmas and my birthday on the same day,” Kravitz said.

To read the complete story, see Fridays' edition of The Times Leader.

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