Christmas Looks A Lot Different This Year

…but that’s okay.

I am actually feeling a bit relieved. Don’t get me wrong now. I love everything about Christmas — buying gifts, the food, spending time with my loved ones, making memories…but it can be stressful. And this year, with COVID happening and my health being wonky and work being crazy…it’s been really hard to get into the spirit. I am in the spirit, for the most part. I’m excited. 🙂 I’m going to be finishing up my wrapping tonight, and I am excited to see everyone open their gifts on Christmas morning. We’re having a FaceTime gift opening with our in-laws instead of seeing them. We will miss them, but this is for the best, especially with this new COVID variant on the loose and most likely here in the States. Scary stuff! But at least with FaceTime the unwrapping will be in real time and it’ll be close to being together. (That was my idea if you couldn’t tell!).

Our dinner will be a bit scaled down, as was Thanksgiving, and that’s fine. Again, it’s just a lot of work, and there’s just three of us eating it this year, so we figured we’d make less. But the menu is no less amazing! It’ll be yummy! But less work which is great, as my mom and I are not spring chickens anymore and could use a break.

It’ll be quieter and less crazy, but perhaps we needed that. Every year lately has felt like a rat race — get gifts bought, get food, wrap gifts, take care of this, take care of that, get work done (me), run around, clean house, clean house again, bake food, bake more food, do this, do that…and I always felt like it passed by SO FAST — you wait literally ALL YEAR and it’s over in a blink. Why is that? Sure, I remember Christmases of years past, and cherish those memories, but as they were happening, they were blurs. Everything was moving. We didn’t get a chance to stop and just breathe. And I think this year we will be able to, and sit down, and just be for once. Just let things pass us by. Soak it in. Feel it. Relax. Not run around so much. Listen to our hearts. Listen to the silence. Let the memory really solidify.

Sure, it’s a pandemic memory in the pandemic year, but still. Something needs to be good, right? Why not a slowed-down, relaxed, easy quiet Christmas at home?

I’m all for that. I’ll miss my in-laws, I’ll miss the craziness, I’ll miss the traditions we share, absolutely. But one deviation for one year might be okay. One deviation might give us the respite we need to power through what’s coming next.

And maybe next Christmas the craziness will be back in full force, and we can get down to the business of making some really epic new memories. Who’s with me?