I’m 30 and just celebrated my 30th Christmas. In the end I had laughed a lot, ate too much, and was licked to death by a couple of cute doggies. But, it’s not what it used to be.
Many of my best childhood memories revolve around our unvarying holidays. For more than 20 years we celebrated at the same places with the same people and the same menu; ham at Easter, turkey on Thanksgiving, appetizers on Christmas Eve, and again, ham on Christmas. Of course the guests changed over the years. That is inevitable. New faces came and went. Old faces faded. And sure, there was a time or two that our far from random celebrations varied. But what remained; I was home and the food was fabulous.
If you know me, you know this. I am a uniform type of girl. I eat the same thing over and over again at restaurants and rarely try anything new. Everything in my house has a place. All labels face outward. I organize hangers by size and color. I like things to be the consistently the same. I fold towels the same way every single time. I loathe just the thought of variation. I follow the same routine every morning. I do things over and over again until they are perfect (e.g. the reason why I only posted 1 blog last month). Conformity is comforting. So for me, two decades of repetitious quality time with my family was fantastic. Things have changed.
Although meeting Matt was absolutely the best thing that ever happened to me, the one consequence that I dreaded was choosing with whom to spend the holidays. Like many couples, we decided to “rotate” which family we would bless with our presence at those festivities; my family Easter and Christmas one year and only Thanksgiving the next, then vice versa. Only to make things more difficult, my adorable niece Aubrey was born 4 days before Christmas last year. For this reason alone, I want to spend every Christmas in Southern Illinois.
This year I spent Christmas 8 hours from where my heart really was. The routine I have been accustomed to no longer exists. Spending every other Christmas in Missouri and the un-Followell-like meals that it brings is my new reality. And as of today, I am okay with that. We’ll see what 2012 brings.
P.S. Don’t let the title of this blog fool you. I think this ended up being more about my extremely overly obsessive compulsiveness than it did Christmas.
I know how you feel. Our first "split" Christmas was hard. I hate feeling guilty every year when we are not at my grandma's or not at Casey's grandma's. But you are right, it's our reality now and hopefully eventually that becomes routine for you and you find comfort in seeing whatever faces you are seeing at that time. Regardless, when we all have kids things will be thrown up in the air again and we'll just have to see how they fall. I don't know if 6 or 7 different Christmases and 5 (or 8 for you) hour drives is going to fly.... Maybe that's what I will ask for for Christmas next year...a niece or nephew hahaha. :)
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