Christmas came and went this year and was better than I expected. I expected it to be sadder than it was. I expected to only have the desire to simply sit at home watching bad Hallmark movies instead of spending time with family and friends. I expected to spend more time feeling sorry for myself and my husband since we can't be together as a family this year.
But it surprisingly was joyful and fun and less stressful than past years. Now, please don't understand, I'm certainly not saying that Tony being gone was the reason it was less stressful. I think that had to do with the fact that we had already had our small Christmas with the three of us and could just attend a few family gatherings. It didn't feel like we had to squeeze in six things in two days and spending more time on the road than together. And paying for half of Christmas earlier took a little of the financial stress away too.
We spent a considerable amount of time with Jess and Lou and baby Addy. That brought us all so much joy. Addy is such a sweety, though I can tell she has her own personality and likes getting her own way already. She loves giving kisses and loved Jocelyn. And you can't help but squeeze her as much as she will let you. Of course right now her preference is to have you endlessly hold her hands while she tries to run around the house chasing the dogs (which she thought were HILARIOUS!). I'm convinced that she will spend very little if no time at all crawling and simply get up one day and go at a dead run. At which point I'm sure she will never stop and her parents will long for the days when they had to walk her around. We were so sad to see them go back home to Pennsylvania but know that soon we will see them again. Until then we will have our almost daily phone calls to keep up with each other.
We were able to attend our church's Christmas eve service, which is by far my favorite Christmas tradition. And it also means so much more when my whole family (minus Tony) is there with me. There is something special about singing O Holy Night and What Child is This? by candlelight that makes it impossible to ignore what happened years ago on that holy night. It seems to erase all of the commercialism of Christmas and help us peacefully remind ourselves of what is truly important.
Our one bad memory was on Christmas eve. Joss, my sister Beth, and I were in the car on our way to my parents house. We had stopped by Starbucks for some drinks to fill up the car before heading south. As we pulled out of the gas station a piercing scream came from the backseat which was like nothing I had ever heard before! Jocelyn had spilled her hot chocolate on her legs and she was immediately burned pretty bad. Luckily my sister was with us and thinking clearly because I was completely stressed out and in shock. She is doing better now and I have learned that I'm not a very good nurse, but for my girl I have been doing my best. I also learned that seeing and hearing your children in that much pain is the worst thing I have encountered as a parent so far!
In all it was a wonderful holiday season. We spent it surrounded by family and friends and Jocelyn was especially blessed with a Wii which we have been enjoying immensely. I was blessed by a LOT of Starbucks giftcards and other sweet gifts from my students and one BEAUTIFUL necklace from my parents (not to mention the guitars for our Wii from my sister and a wonderful photo montage from my other sister). We were overly blessed.
I hope you were as blessed this holiday season, not just with gifts and material things, but with love from family and friends and unconditional love from a God who sent His son as a babe in a manger just for you.
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