Future Christmas - 2050

December 25, 2050

Dear Journal,

Today was one of the best days of my life. The reflection and joy that was felt in my home was unlike anything I've felt in a very long time. It's always great to see family. Sarah and I have made it our mission to make sure our kids know about the extended relatives and cousins they've never met – or even knew they had. At our age, we realize how important these special moments are. Joy comes not simply from seeing family, but by being able to share your successes in life with them. So, we decided to have a family reunion today on Christmas Day itself and met in our skyrise condominium, overlooking downtown Charlotte, NC. Christmas is the best time of the year to do something like this even moreso than Thanksgiving. You have to give to receive, and today I gave a lot and I've never felt more complete because of it.

As I type this in 2050, I have thought a lot about everything I've been through and how investing in cryptocurrencies was the best decision I've ever made in my life. How it opened so many doors and laid the foundation for what I have today.

My entire complex was completed in 2040 with cryptocurrency and it's investors like myself that have helped balloon the population of Charlotte turning it into a small megacity with over 6 million inhabitants. I'm 63, but will likely live to see 163 because of advances in medical technology – again because of cryptocurrencies. I knew there were members of my family that needed treatment and weren't fortunate enough to see this trend as it was taking off – or they did see it and didn't believe it would last. How could I call myself the head of the family, if I sat by and did nothing? This is especially true considering all of the dozen or so investments I have in blockchain technology that are worth millions in fiat currency collectively.

Several members of my family need organ transplants and/or joint reconstruction that used to cause them daily pain. I didn't want my family to miss Christmas while they went through the process of being listed, having their bodies scanned, DNA extracted – the whole nine, just so the doctors could get all of the information that would be needed to grow them new organs. I wanted them to experience the holidays with the rest of us knowing that as soon as it was all over, their lives would be radically different. What better gift for someone you love?

Seeing them walk into my home today with those smiles on their faces meant the world to me. It was like the weight of the universe was lifted off of their shoulders. Sitting on the sky balcony with the kids in the rooftop pool overlooking the city at sunset was euphoric and one of my cousins told me he'd never seen anything so beautiful in his entire life...and he's six years older than me!

The Christmas tree! Oh, I cannot forget about the tree. Sarah and I bought a twenty foot Christmas tree made of real pine wood. We had it shipped here right after Thanksgiving and the family spent an entire Saturday afternoon decorating it while listening to music. It was very fun.

What would this story be without something going wrong though? Yes journal, we had a scare on Christmas day. My wife's brother started having problems with his cybernetic prosthetics again. So, one of the gifts that she decided to give today was a new arm. He lost it after serving in the army twenty years ago. It was almost luck that he was given the arm that he got, which was considered cutting edge and expensive at the time, because we didn't think he'd qualify. Well now that thing goes haywire almost every other week and it's become more of a hindrance than anything else. He was trying to show off the new skills and abilities that his arm has given him – like the ability to lift extremely heavy objects. I knew it was a bad idea, and he had a few too many bottles of beer to go along with it.

I was in the bathroom washing my face and reading up on current events on the holo-projector when I heard a scream. I rushed into the living room to see that my black vase, which had a gold drip design painted at the top of it, was broken into a few dozen pieces. The thing had to have weighed around one hundred pounds with the areca palm plant and soil inside of it. I could see Donnie's cybernetic arm was limp as a noodle and he had a pained, shocked expression on his face.

I wasn't even mad. How could you be on a day that was going so well? I was just glad he didn't drop the sweet potato casserole – or the turkey. Sarah helped him get it back in working shape, she's the biomedical engineer, not me. My son and nephew were on cleanup duty, they didn't mind.

To make Donnie feel better, I let him wear my augmented reality headset. EverWorld is all the rage nowadays with its mix of augmented and virtual features that place the user in a virtual blockchain-backed world where people build everything from homes to flying cars. All of these designs are licensed by the creator and are bought and sold on internal exchanges. I was one of the early investors in EverWorld, taking a serious gamble during the coin offering phase – but I saw the potential

Donnie hadn't yet experienced the sensation of being in EverWorld but said he'd heard about it everywhere he went and when he turned on the television. He couldn't stop talking about it in the days leading up to the get-together, so as soon as the accident happened, I knew exactly what to bring out to lighten the mood. Sarah says I spend too much time in EverWorld for a man my age. She forgets that my generation came up with video games and some of us will go to our graves playing them.

It was great having two families together, sharing experiences and for me, sharing my home with those that I love. So despite the overcooked food from my wife's side of the family (I'll keep that secret safe in this journal), it was more than worth it. We're already making plans for our next family reunion in a year – and I've got the best idea.

I would like to thank everyone over at The Writer's Block for helping me to edit this work of fiction. It's always good to have different opinions and they provided me with insight on some things I hadn't put into consideration.