Hug Twice

In an ideal world, Christmas would be celebrated much differently in our house. Well, first off, it would be celebrated in our house. Not in our relatives houses over a thousand miles away.

As I’ve had kids and my kids have gotten a little older, especially CJ being 3 1/2 now, I am starting to see that it would be not just easier for me to have Christmas here and not away, but it would be better for him. No long car trip, no shuffling from house to house, having Christmas at home. I find it hard to get excited about Christmas and decorate my own house because I know we’ll just be packing everything up and transporting it to celebrate with my inlaws on Christmas Eve and my parents on Christmas.

In an ideal world, everyone would come here for Christmas. The problem is distance. My parents and my inlaws only live about a half hour away from each other by car. We, on the other hand, live 12-14 hours away from each. And we are the only ones. All of our extended family lives within a short radius of my parents and inlaws, so Christmas at their houses involves our siblings and my grandfather, who is too elderly to travel thousands of miles. We have the accommodations and the space, but we are located too far away to make everyone coming here for Christmas practical at all.

I know that the important part is family, and the fact that we have to travel to be with family should not dampen my Christmas spirit. Next year it will be a big priority for me to make our house feel as Christmasy as possible, even if we won’t be here for the actual event. The kids deserve it. I think we’ll even hang some lights!

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