"And thank you for a house
full of people I love.
Amen."
-- Terri Guillemets
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| Gingerbread family 12-25-14 |
The best thing about Christmas is waking up in my own house, with my own little family.
Yesterday we traveled to Michigan for the big fat family shindig with my mother and my sisters and their families and all the kids and all the dogs and all the food and all the noise and the mediocre coffee and watching A Christmas Story for the umpteenth time followed by the late-night drive home in sketchy winter weather and being up until two wrapping presents.
Sigh.
It's always fun. But it's also exhausting.
This morning it's just us. The four of us.
It's quiet.
It's calm.
There's no stress.
There's no Christmas music.
Nobody is pestering me about when we can open presents.
Nobody is complaining that the food isn't organic.
There's no barking.
The coffee here is the best around.
I have to thank my mother particularly for being a generous, understanding, unselfish soul who makes it a priority to let her daughters spend Christmas Day in our own homes if we choose to. And even though Christmas Day is also her birthday, my Mom doesn't hassle us or give us any shit about not being there because she understands the importance of making our own family traditions and memories. She intentionally plans her Christmas get-together on a day that isn't Christmas Day.
It's the best gift she could possibly give us.
So, in the spirit of the holidays, I wish you a Happy-Whatever-Doesn't-Offend-You.
I hope you are spending it with people you love.
And I hope it is filled with lots of good things.
