Too soon?

I am sure everyone gets here…this place where you sense things are going to be much different moving forward, and try to prepare for it.  Try to think about it a bit, try, maybe, to hang on to some of the past but also plan for the new.

  

I have been thinking about Christmas.  My mother-in-law passed away earlier this year and although we stopped going over for a big gift exchange a couple years back, we did try to do a Christmas-time brunch with everyone.   She could not really participate the way she used to, cranking out a batch of coffee cakes, rolls and breakfast casseroles for us all, but her daughter sure did her proud and produced some great breakfasts for us the last couple years.  We have gathered at this big kitchen for many years a couple weeks before Christmas to bake cookies together.  Have we seen the last cookie?

What do we do now?  I know it’s time to start new traditions, but what are those traditions? I am used to the old ones! I like the old ones!  I am not sure where I am suppose to go, or if I am to stay home.  A couple years ago we did stay home, alone, on Christmas Day, and let me tell you, it sucked.  I told hubs that would not happen again, as long as I could be somewhere, especially if a grandchild was involved.  We’ve had a couple of perilous drives since then but have been with kids/grandkids on Christmas Day, usually arriving mid-morning and staying a day or two.

 

I wondered about the every other year thing but both my girls wish to stay home on Christmas morning with their families.  This year, youngest daughter will be WAY pregnant on Christmas Day, so she should be home! Besides that, son and daughter-in-law, in a different city, also need to make plans with her family so I need to be considerate of that as well.

Is it too selfish, too decadent, to escape to a tropical location on Christmas? It’s on the list.