A New Kind of Christmas

Christmas used to be- 

making ornaments with my mom,

climbing the ladder to the roof with dad to "help" hang the lights,

buying a flocked Christmas tree,

making sugar cookies from scratch and frosting them on the counter, 

opening one gift Christmas Eve,

 sleeping with my sister and staring at her until she said, "yes, now we can get up!"

Then walking out to our living room to see what magic had occurred in the night.

 Then Christmas changed-

we still made ornaments with mom, 

and sometimes bought a flocked tree, 

and my sister and mom began hanging the lights, 

and Christmas Eve was at dad's house, Christmas morn at mom's. 

We made sugar cookies and frosted them on our kitchen counter.

Then two families came in to play and Christmas became for many years-

Christmas Eve at Grandma Betty's, then on to my mother's house that same night.

We awoke did a quick Christmas morning, then showered and hustled over to HH's parents for a big Christmas Brunch where both our families gathered.

Then Christmas night was turkey soup and stockings

 at Grandma Dody and Grandpa Don's. 

We made sugar cookies from scratch and frosted them on the kitchen counter and gave them out to family and friends. 

HH's grandparents moved to Big Bear, then his parents to Reno and it all changed again. 

Brunch moved to our house, we started new traditions of photos with Santa as a family, baking cookies together and frosting them on mom's kitchen counter. 

And we made it work, embraced the new, found a way to be together. 

I've been spoiled the last few years since we moved. 

We've flown to California, had Christmas with both of our families a little early, but still we got to have Christmas together. 

This year it is a totally new kind of Christmas. We didn't fly back.

 HH can't get the time off and he will work Christmas Eve. 

I'm adjusting.

The kids made the cool snowflakes shown above, I shipped all the gifts to family, all the shopping is done, wrapping looms ahead, but I do feel a little bereft. 

I'm a tradition lover and there is a big chunk missing this year. 

Life goes on as it tends to do...

HH is making gorgeous furniture in our garage (photo is in process... final photo later).

The older boys have been skiing a lot with their buddies on the mountain even though we 

still wait for a big dumping of snow. 

 And I'm certain I'm not the only one dealing with newness and change and difference this year. 

Loved ones have been lost, sickness has come, finances are strangling, family isn't near. 

The thing about life is that you can't stop it from changing. 

This girl wants to throw a fit about that sometimes, but then I remember things usually go south when I try to be in charge

But Christmas is a birth we are celebrating, right?

It's about Him who loved us enough to be born of flesh. 

And that's about newness. 

An everlasting, unchanging, beautiful NEWNESS! 

And there is one other tiny little thing that hasn't changed.

We still...

 make sugar cookies

 from scratch

 and frost them

on the kitchen counter!

Merry Christmas to you with love! 

I wish I could give you a hug with that wish.