Since moving to Arizona, I've been dull-spirited around the holidays knowing we didn't have plans to spend them with family. Last year, we were blessed to have the Taylors - a family that Tim grew up with in Willcox - over for Thanksgiving; and on Christmas night, our neighbors came over for a late dinner after one of them had a terrible evening with her mom's relatives. Even though I wasn't excited about the holidays last year, they turned out pretty well.
This year, we were blessed to spend Thanksgiving with our friends, Ben and Trisha, along with their kids and his family. They live across the street from us and go to our church, and we visit with their family frequently. Our kids are all about the same age, and our oldest two go to school and ride the bus together. We're grateful to have them as friends :) When we told them that we had no plans for Thanksgiving, they graciously invited us to spend it with them and their family. I told them that we didn't want to intrude since they were having Ben's parents and sister over, and that we didn't want to add any extra stress to their plans, but they kindly encouraged us to accept the invitation. So that day, we pushed Lincoln in his stroller with foil-wrapped dishes stacked underneath his seat, the big kids leading the way to our friends' house, and spent the evening with friends that we had made our family.
Christmas this year, however, was a different story...and it was all my crazy, obsessive, negative self's fault. I did well to get most of our gifts on Black Friday, put the Christmas tree and decorations up a few days later, and then have the gifts wrapped and under the tree the following day. I even survived the first week of the kids' winter break! Then it all just went...down hill. I was stressed out about insignificant things, restless, and obsessed with converting the office into Aislin's bedroom. In other words, instead of spending that week with my family (Tim had the week of Christmas off from work) looking at lights, going to the park, sitting on the couch with popcorn and Christmas movies, or playing video games together, we made family trips to Lowe's and Fry's Electronics. From December 23rd to the 25th, Tim cut holes in the walls, made cords, ran wires from the attic to those various holes...all so that the office didn't have to be the only room in the house in which we could have an office. Basically, he made it so we didn't have to depend on the strength of our Wi-fi anymore, and could use a hard-wire to connect to the internet (at least in the master bedroom, living room and family room). He's pretty amazing. Meanwhile, I moved as much as I could into the storage room in the garage and into the attic, and Tim got the computer set up in our bedroom. On the 26th, Aislin and I painted. The following day we moved her furniture into her new room, and then rested.
The kids didn't seem to mind all the hustle and bustle in our house that week. They were excited to go to Lowe's and Fry's Electronics, and they were excited to see an entire room painted purple. They still got to open presents on Christmas day and kept themselves busy with their gifts. They never once complained about the work their dad and I had chosen to do that week, especially on Christmas day, but I know I had cheated them, and Tim, of a more memorable Christmas. I wasn't in the mood...sunshine and spring-like weather didn't help to put me in the holiday spirit...we didn't have plans for Christmas anyway...were all pathetic excuses. Honestly, I'm not sure what emotion drove my attitude. Perhaps I was just homesick - it could've been as simple as that - and I had filled that sad feeling with compulsion...to work on a big, tedious, poorly-timed home project.
Next Christmas may be 11 1/2 months away, but I think I'm going to start planning now. So far, I only have an Advent Calendar idea: to place 25 cards in a jar, or an actual calendar, and read one with the kids each day...and no matter how tired or not-in-the-mood I feel, we will do whatever is written on that card. We will do things like: make hot cocoa and deliver jars of it to friends, make s'mores in the back yard, watch a Christmas movie, go to the library and check out Christmas books, see the Temple Lights, stand in a line at the mall (just once in our lives) to get a picture with Santa, bake cookies, sing Christmas carols, make Christmas crafts, buy gifts for the needy to wrap up and give away, put a dollar in as many storefront donation cans we can find, drive around to look at Christmas lights, send out homemade Christmas cards, plan a fantastic Christmas dinner and invite anyone who will be in town and without family to spend the evening with... So far, I have 14 cards. I just need 11 more to hopefully make next year's Christmas a memorable one for my family :)
