Family Christmas

My young men were not home for Christmas, but I’m ok with that. Many years ago I told them that someday they would have to decide where to spend the holidays. I explained that they would find special ladies, eventually get married and have a family of their own. And that would mean they would have to decide where to spend any special day. I stressed to them that their obligation was to family, and that their family was just them, the man of the house, the lady, and who ever comes along.

Yes, we, John and I, are still their family, but not the main family any more. And the ladies they fall in love with have family too, but they also are not the main family. The family unit is the husband and wife and children, and that unit needed to decide what they wanted to do on different holidays.

When I told them that, I knew in my heart that it would be hard for me to accept, but I knew it was important for them to understand. And that finally happened this year, neither boy was here for Christmas. Jonathon spent Christmas with Steph’s family in PA, and Mike with Kelly’s in MD, and as lonely and empty as my house felt, it was the right thing to do. Both boys called home, which I REALLY… and I can’t stress that enough… really really really appreciated. But they were where they belonged, with their ladies.

However, I asked them all to please set aside one day for us, so we could have our family Christmas. Yesterday was the day, and it was a great Christmas! John made his sticky buns and we all enjoyed them, as we have for many Christmases. Then we sat around and caught up, just talked. Well that was a little different than years past where we usually ripped into gifts and then talked… but this year we hadn’t all been together in one place since graduation in May, so we had some catching up to do. Eventually someone decided it was time to open presents, and we did, and had fun with it. We kept gifts to a minimum this year, because of the economy, but everything was special.

Then it was dinner time, not a traditional Christmas dinner, since I was sure everyone would be turkeyed out. We had a family favorite, lasagna, and more great conversation. Way too soon it was time for everyone to head home, since everyone except Mike had work today. It wasn’t until then that I realized we hadn’t taken a single photo, even though we’d spent a lot of time looking at old ones, LOL!

Thanks family, I had a WONDERFUL Christmas yesterday!

Here we are, in our Christmas glory!

Jon and Steph on the left

Mike and Kelly

on the right