Christmas

I arrived home today a few days early for Christmas. The house is decorated to the nines for the season and immediately put me into the Christmas spirit. I had been trying hard to get into holiday mode, listening to tones of Christmas music and watching all the Christmas related movies that I own, but somehow it just didn’t feel like Christmas yet.

However, as I walked in the door and saw the Christmas tree with gifts piled underneath I felt like it was finally Christmas. I spent the afternoon knitting while my Mom baked cookies and we listened to Christmas music. Later on we are going to watch one of favourite Christmas movies, Christmas Vacation. I’m excited to get to spend the rest of the week preparing for the big day. I have knitting to finish, and lots of wrapping to do. I look forward to visiting family, and the arrival of my brother and sister-in-laws arrival on Friday, Christmas eve eve as my family would say.

The other night as I watched an old Christmas play that my brother and I were in when we were kids I got to thinking about how different Christmas is and how our traditions have changed. When we were kids we use to stay at one of my grandparents house over night on Christmas eve so that we could Christmas morning with them. Now we stay at home, and make the short 10 minute drive to each Grandparent’s house later in the day.

This year marks the first year since my brother and sister-in-law got married that they will be at our house for Christmas. They usually travel to Saskatchewan to visit my sister-in-law’s family, but this year decided to spend the holiday with us. I’m excited to introduce her to some of our traditions. The house will be full of people and I think that it will be an extra special Christmas this year.

Although some of traditions have changed I still really enjoy Christmas. I think that as you grow up it’s natural for traditions to grow along with you, and I’m sure that this year they will change once more. I look forward to see what this Christmas holds for my family, and I hope that your holiday is full of laughter, smiles, warmth and love.