It had taken a lot of doing, but he had managed to make sure he came home, this Christmas. Even if it had been fifteen years since he had last been there. This Christmas he had to. He had to keep a promise to his brother.
He wrapped his coat tighter around him as he trudged through the snow. Winter had come to his childhood home, in the past it had always been his favorite season. Gone was the canopy of leaves that line the path to his destination. Instead, the trees were covered in a blanket of white, as icicles hung from the branches, gleaming like diamonds. He smiled as he looked at one of the lower hanging wintery stalactites. As a child he would climb upon his brother's shoulders in order to break some off. Their mother would allow them dip them in delicious flavorings, as a special treat when they had not been too much under foot. He reached up and broke a piece off and looked at it in wonder. In his youth, he had been too excited about the taste that was to come to stop and look at the wonder of the shape. Each one was in itself unique. No two were ever the same, just like snowflakes.
He stopped and paused as he looked down a side path that led to the lake and nearby foot hills, he and his brother would once play. Even now he could make out the faint figures of people skating on the ice covered lake. There would be children laughing as they raced down the hills on sleds. While near by others skied. A sigh escaped his lips as he thought of the hours they spent at play. It was the only time of the year, they weren't needed to put in a full day at their studies and help in the fields tending that year's yields. Even now he half expected his brother to grasp his arm and drag him along towards the lake.
Instead, he moved on to his childhood home. First the old barn came into sight. Its bright colors stood out against the snow. A curve of his lips happened as he thought of Abigail, and the time he had spent with her in the hay loft. She had been the first in an impressive list of conquests.
Then he saw it, the old farmhouse he had grown up in. No matter how far away he ever traveled, this was the one place he called home. Even now, it twinkled like rare jewels. Someone had decorated, though he doubted it would have been his mother. Normally, she would have prepared the house for the holidays. She worked hard to keep the traditions of the past alive in her heart. As he moved closer the smells of baking made his mouth water and stomach growl. He wondered if she would have made candy canes, and taffy. As a boy he had enjoyed pulling and twisting the candies into the shapes they became. Now, he savored the taste of them when she would send them in her care packages from Earth. Nothing, though, could beat the taste of fresh goodies with an ice cold glass of milk.
He paused to reflect on the reason he was here. The bad slung over his back never felt as heavy as it did now. He had brought two small boxes, to be laid to rest behind the old oak tree next to Champ, his brother's pet dog, and two smaller markers. He had come to bury his older brother, and his wife, next to their sons. Again he sighed as he walked up the steps of the porch, to let his mother know, he had brought her eldest boy home one last time.