Happy Holidays

Christmas over the years has changed - and changed back. Many, many years ago it was just David and I, when we got married we moved a big 3 miles from where I had grown up and 7 miles from where David had been raised. We celebrated the way we remembered, well, minus the screaming alcohol fueled fights for me, but that was an adjustment. I came from a family that put the tree up weeks before and took it down soon after. David's family waited until Christmas eve and then kept it up.mingling these two traditions meant the tree was up for a glorious 30 seconds so I waited to take it down. The entire day was spent running from one house to another, at that time everyone still lived on LI and I still had a (little) relationship with my father's side of the family. First child was born and then everything exploded. The tree got bigger, the present pile got deeper, house hopping got infinitely more difficult. Child number two arrived, more presents, more mayhem. My sister moved, I had drastically decreased the time we spent with my father's side, my mother remarried a man with half a dozen adult children. Time moved on, we eventually morphed our tradition into quick runs to family, home, then out to the Asian restaurant. It was so much fun. More family moved, Adam joined the Navy, we began to move -  and then there were three. We moved to the Poconos and found it almost impossible to find an open restaurant - so, I started cooking. We adjusted again, I made a turkey breast instead of a full turkey, tofurky for me. It was happy times, the novelty and all. Then Jackson joined the navy,got married -and now he and Brandi will be starting their own traditions. Adam has also moved, he lives rather happily on the edge of Kentucky and Ohio. And we are back to two. Just us. We stopped buying presents for each other years ago, this year I did try, but I picked it,put it down. David doesn't need anything, most of my needs are virtual.We still do the tree, still do the Asian restaurant, hang with the dogs, back to the beginning. Back to the start.