In a normal year, after a fun, upgraded plane ride (using all those card points amassed after a year of hard work, which is my favorite way to fly) we'd be in Idaho right now, sitting by a blazing fire, eating peppermint something or another and playing dress-up and legos with my nieces. Discussing ridiculous explosion / beefcake movies with my Mom while we wrap the final gifts. Building something in the shop with my Dad and making German food for his birthday. Staying up late with my Sis and a bourbon to gossip in person while we half-watch deliciously bad Hallmark movies and eat the box of sea salt caramels we've been hiding from everyone else. Trying to convince both my Brother-in-Law and my Husband to just stop working and rest already. Placing bets to see if Brian will ever win Yahtzee. (Spoiler: the answer is no.) And gathering together to watch Die Hard as a fam while eating my weight in Summer Sausage and Boursin.
Alas, not this year. Well almost - I already bought Summer Sausage and Boursin. Some things cannot be skipped, pandemic or not. I mean, we also have Yahtzee here but it's not the same without a child acting as official roller excitedly winging the dice across the room three or four times.
But in reality I'm having a much harder time not being home for Christmas than I expected. It's weird because I went almost 15 years not being there for the holidays when B worked in restaurants that never closed. I guess it's hard to miss what you don't know, so especially before my nieces were born, it was something that we just dealt with. But the last 5 years of wonderfully overwhelming Christmas celebrations in the snow, all viewed through the eyes of the girls has become so much a part of how the year ends that right now I kinda don't know what to do with myself.
I think I'm going to take a few days off, prob not next week, but the week after. The quiet, lazy week between Christmas and New Year's filled with reading and naps and online shopping for myself is not a tradition I'm willing to let 2020 take from me. Especially not when I can keep up this specific tradition from the safety of my own home.
So however you celebrate this season, Christmas or not, I truly wish you the most, especially in this weird, convoluted year. If not a ‘Happy’ Holiday, at the very least a restful one!
