Christmas is my favorite holiday … always was and always will be. Ask anyone who knows me and some would say I go overboard but I enjoy it and I have learned to scale back and only do the things I truly enjoy. I ask my kids each year what matters most to them and they can never really pinpoint things, so it is up to me to decide. I have found that when I attempt to eliminate certain traditions that really do matter to them, they speak up so that has been my way of figuring out what matters to them. It’s kind of a round-about way, but it works for us. Many people can say what they don’t like more easily than what they do like.
One of the things that made my Christmas special this year was when one of my sons came home and commented that it didn’t really feel much like Christmas until he walked through the door. So it was all worth it for me. I also enjoyed making lots of our traditional foods even though some of them are time consuming. Having a teenage daughter at home who doesn’t appreciate my cooking, I love that my sons expect and enjoy our holiday cooking traditions. We were even lucky enough to have 9 inches of snow today, so we took a walk in the snow tonight and took pictures. We played lots of games as a family, and then we went to our own separate spots to do solitary things only to come back later as a family and eat and play some more. I fondly remember that when their grandparents were alive, we would have multi-generational pool marathons over the holidays … fun times and memories for all! I’m just glad that this year, right now … we are celebrating Christmas together. Change is inevitable … who knows what next year will bring!