A little Christmas recap

I spent the majority of last week relaxing at my parent's for the Christmas break. I am fortunate enough to get three days off for the Christmas holiday (one of few benefits to working for a church) and seeing as how there were only two of us in our department on Tuesday afternoon and the weather was getting bad and we both had a long way to travel we decided to shut down our department a little early. So, I made it to my parent's house in time to have dinner with them at a diner in town (we were the only ones in there so the service was great that night).
It really was great to sit around and do almost nothing for several days. To have meals fixed or bought for me, to enjoy cable, to not be woken up in the middle of the night by and number of noises that a city will produce and to only have to set my alarm one morning. At the same time, it was kind of a strange Christmas. My brother only lives 45 minutes away but had to work each day last week. He came out on Christmas Eve and we all went to church and did some present opening but then he had to leave again. He came back on Friday and we did a nice family dinner. I played a lot of cards with my parents and watched ever special about Christmas that was on the Food Network. It was beautiful outside due to a mass amount of snow but that made it difficult to really go anywhere (not that there is anywhere to go where my parents live).
I think that I have just had trouble adjusting to our new traditions since my parents moved to Wisconsin. It's been 5 years so you would think I would be used to it now, but I'm not. For all the years that we lived in San Diego, we did the same things each Christmas season with very few changes. The house would get decorated the weekend after Thanksgiving. There would be church on Christmas Eve, followed by an open house at some family friend's and then presents to be opened at home (yes, we opened presents on Christmas Eve). Christmas morning would include stockings (the stocking gifts were what came from Santa), a family breakfast that always included fruit floats (cut up fruit, orange juice and a splash of sprite or something similar). Once everyone was cleaned up from breakfast, we would begin preparing for the open house that we always hosted on Christmas Day. My mom would make a huge pot of soup and around 4 in the afternoon, people would start showing up. And they would keep showing up. Some staying for hours and some only for a bit. The kids would decorate sugar cookies. Many of the adults stopped by in order to recover from their own family gatherings earlier in the day. When I was young, I don't think that I ever really looked forward to this event, but now it is the thing that I miss the most. It was my chance to feel like I was a part of a large family (minus most of the drama that comes with it). My parents have tried to do something similar in their new town, but most people are with their families and have no need for another party. So, it's just the 4 of us to celebrate together. I'm grateful for that, but I still miss how it used to be.
Wow, that got deeper than I expected it to. Oh well!
Other than missing the past, I had a lovely holiday. I got a couple of fun new toys for the kitchen and a few gift cards to enjoy spending at the sales that are on now.
After Thanksgiving, I helped my dad do a little decorating while my mom was gone and had the chance to set up my little Dicken's village. This village was collected and given to my by my Aunt Becky before she passed away a couple of years ago. My mom has put it out in their house the last several years but this year, I actually put it up and got a chance to really look at it. It was a fun memory.

I hope that you had a very Merry Christmas! Have a Happy New Year!