Some new thoughts for the new year

This holiday season (which, by the way, is NOT over until Tuesday the 6^th) has been one of the best ever for me. I certainly didn’t think so as I was living it, but now that it’s drawing to a close, I can say that it really was. I sent my Christmas cards out late. It caused me anguish because I normally send them out the day after Thanksgiving, but in retrospect, it was fine that I sent them when I did. George and I couldn’t agree on a “family outfit” for our traditional night-before-Thanksgiving portrait, and then there was the issue of not having much disposable income- so this year’s Christmas card photo turned out to be a candid photo taken while we were experiencing The Polar Express in Williams, AZ for the first time. I love the picture because Alex is showing his true personality, and George and I look like the happy and adoring parents we happen to be. The tree didn’t quite make it up “on time” either, but the delay this year was due to Alex’s insistence that he help put the ornaments up- and he did a fantastic job. As George says, he seems to have inherited the “Christmas Nazi” gene.

There were other things that didn’t happen as they have in the past: we didn’t drive through the Church of Joy light before Christmas and we still might not get to it this time around; we got to Zoolights early and waited in line (though George would say that this was a wonderful thing); as of right now we haven’t seen the light display at McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park; and finally, no lights adorned the outside of our house, though they existed in abundance inside the house. In previous years, that these things were missing would be enough to spoil my holiday. However, this year, I am grateful for everything that did happen, from Tommy spending Christmas Eve with us (and refusing to sleep, which made for a very tired Tantee on Christmas morning) to George unwittingly forgiving me this year’s trangressions so that Alex could have an amazing Christmas experience.

For the first time in a long time, instead of getting caught up in getting things done, I was living in and enjoying the moments. I’m hoping this continues through 2009.