Home, Sweet Home – Making Our House Into a Home

I’m still in Christmas-is-over denial.  I hate it when Christmas is over.  I come from a family that often left its tree decorated and lit well into February…partially because we love Christmas so much and partially because we were often too busy to take it down.  Over the last several years, Christmas has left a little something more to be desired.  Three years ago my uncle passed away due to Pancreatic Cancer only4 days before Christmas.  I actually did all the Christmas shopping on December 23 from Bi-Lo.  Yep, high quality gifts.   Last year, my grandfather suffered a massive heart attack on Christmas morning.  He lived only three weeks after the attack.  We exchanged gifts but no one had the heart to open or use any gift from Papa.  We were confident he’d come back home and we’d all have Christmas together again.

And then there’s this year.  My family (mom, especially) was dreading Christmas.  Papa wasn’t here anymore and for the first time in 30 years, I wouldn’t be at home to open gifts on Christmas morning.  I’ll be honest.  I thought it was going to be the worst Christmas ever.  I knew that most of our Christmas traditions would slip away leaving my feeling like Christmas was just another day on the calendar.

I was wrong…so wrong.

Actually, Christmas felt like the best Christmas EVER!  And it had nothing to do with gifts (even though I did get an awesome DLSR camera from my husband).  It was about family.  My whole family came here to open gifts on Christmas night.  We laughed, played Wii, and just enjoyed each other’s company.  It was the most relaxing and fun time we’d had together in a very long time.

So what made the difference?  Well, have you ever heard the phase “You can’t go home again?”  Well, that’s true of Christmas.  As our families grow and change, I don’t think we can try to hold on to the old Christmas traditions and make them fit our lives now.  Sometime that just doesn’t work.  I think we have to learn to change some of our traditions to go with Christmas.  It just makes so much more sense.  Christmas felt wonderful this year because we weren’t thinking about what it was like last year, or the year before, or ten years before.  Instead we reveled in the joy of this Christmas and are already looking forward to next year.

So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!