Merry, Merry Christmas…a little bit late! Hope everyone had a beautiful and memorable holiday with family and friends.
I have so many great ideas for posts in the months ahead but, in all honesty, these past couple of weeks have been really tough with work, shopping, wrapping, baking, parties, friends and family…all the warmly wonderful aspects of holiday preparations that I truly love, but that eat up any hope of free time for photos or the really good blogging I am hoping to begin to produce here! And I am going to slack a little bit tonight as well, but only because I am exhausted. I have some great, sunny photos that I haven’t shared with you yet (well, some of them have been on the Frozen Moments FB page, but not actually included in a post). I’m just going to randomly post some sunny shots in and around my rambling post-Christmas thoughts.
These were taken after the last snowstorm, in both Congress Park and the State Park. Sadly, all the beautiful snow was washed away with all the Christmas rain, but I have the great photos to help remember how beautiful everything was a few short weeks ago.
I have to say that this Christmas was especially meaningful and very special to me. As I mentioned in my very first post on this blog, I have been through an incredible number of personal changes throughout 2014, all of them good, and all long overdue and much anticipated…but changes nonetheless. This was the first Christmas my kids would come home to somewhere other than the house and town where they grew up. I worried about traditions that we have shared for the past 30 years…how would we carry on those traditions? Would we even want to? Would they miss their childhood home? Would they consider this new place home? So much weighed so heavily on my mind and I tried hard to make it good and special for all of us.
In hindsight, I didn’t need to worry at all. Everything was fine…as a matter of fact, it was wonderful! We broke all our old traditions. We made new memories and started what I hope will become new traditions. It was really kind of exhilarating. We will always have the warm memories of Christmas Eves that were just for us, the beautiful Masses we attended, the warm fireplace and even the yearly photos we took as we melted sitting on the hearth in front of those warm fires.
Turns out that change is a very, very good thing. I didn’t need to worry for one second. It also turns out that Christmas really is about who you spend it with, who you love, and the time you spend together. Nothing else matters. My kids were great. We had fun. We shared it with friends. We spent Christmas day with family (that tradition will never change). I had someplace new to live, I had an artificial tree instead of a live one this year, I had considerably less room than I had in my former home. But none of it mattered.
We had a beautiful, warm and wonderful holiday. I had both children home from out of state and we had a blast together. That’s what counts.
Again, change is a very good thing!
Hopefully, this didn’t sound too sappy, but I am feeling all sentimental tonight (and, as mentioned earlier, I am exhausted!). It was a good Christmas in this family. I’m hoping everyone else had warm memories and lots of fun as well. It really is such a special time of year.
Next up, New Year’s! I thought all of these sunny shots would signify and help foster a feeling of new beginnings and change in the new year. Happy 2015!!
