Christmas Evening Observations

The household is winding down this evening from a wonderful and relaxing day. In my finite mind that's the best way to spend it.

When my son was young we used to go down to my parents' home on Christmas Eve and spend Christmas morning opening our gifts with them. Yet somewhere along the way I decided that my son and I needed to establish our own Christmas Day traditions in our home. He needed to see that even just the two of us were a family in our own right.

Those first couple of years were a little difficult. It felt lonely with no one else around. We'd open our gifts, I'd take a million pictures, and then I'd fix this fabulous Christmas dinner that only the two of us ate. Still it was important to me to establish ourselves as a bonafide family.

It was also important to me that we have some time to just relax without running hither and yon and feeling rushed to get this item checked off our list so we could do this and this and that and then leave to go here and there. Feels exhausting even now to think about it.

Over the years we've taken to occasionally inviting any other alone friends to come and eat Christmas dinner with us. Hey, we always have plenty of leftovers, so why not spread it around a little bit? Plus it helped for the day to feel less lonely.

However, now we've come to enjoy the slow and easy pace that has become our Christmas. Yes, we still get up early to open presents (after I fix my coffee). Yes, I still take a million pictures. And yes, I still cook an enormous (and fabulous) Christmas dinner. Sometimes we have friends join us and sometimes not.

This year was once again just the two of us and couldn't have been more wonderfuler (hee, hee). We were a little lighter on the presents but not on the love.

I spent the entire day in my new lavender lounging set (it IS my signature color, after all), cooked and ate Christmas dinner, then settled back for "It's a Wonderful Life" and another Hallmark Channel Christmas show. My son set up his great new stereo, played new games, and enjoyed all of his new stash.

Tomorrow we'll travel and be with others of our extended family. For today we were just our family.

And that was more than enough.