Christmas was a little different for us this year. Phillip was scheduled to work on Christmas Day (which wasn’t different – he’s worked three out of the last four) and really didn’t want to spend the holiday by himself (completely understandable and we’ve worked it out in previous years so that we have spent time together for Christmas). But this year a short day trip home while Phillip was at work wasn’t an option. This added up to me facing a Christmas without my family, which just made me cry every time I thought about it. Then, after factoring in the move – which was scheduled to take place right around Christmas – it became impractical to decorate. Plus, all of my Christmas decorations where in the back and on the bottom of our storage unit; there was no way we could get them all out without emptying the entire building. For those that know me well, you’ll appreciate how disappointing it was not to be able to decorate for Christmas or put up my trees or unpack all of my snowmen. Needless to say, I was having a hard time getting into the spirit of the season. But my family came to the rescue! Mom, Daddy, and Grandmother loaded up and drove to Charleston to be with us on Christmas (and thank goodness to also help with the move – couldn’t have done it without them). I recreated our annual holiday meal at our apartment and tried to do some of the little things that make Christmas Christmas for our family. So while it was still different, it turned out to be a really memorable Christmas. We were only missing my brother, who couldn’t come this time, and my niece. It wasn’t the same without them, but it was a lot better than I had anticipated when I thought I’d be hanging around on Christmas Day by myself, without a tree, waiting on Phillip to get off of work. We did manage to put up two tiny trees with a strand of lights in our apartment and, despite a lack of garland and ornaments and an angel or star, they still looked pretty Christmas-y. Thank goodness for festive wrapping paper.
The days surrounding Christmas were full of packing boxes and hauling boxes and toting boxes and taping boxes and unloading boxes, but we worked in a little relaxation and togetherness time too. However, we did not work in any picture-taking, so the two pictures in this post constitute the whole Christmas 2012 album.
Phillip and Grandmother taking a break from box toting.
For better or for worse, it was definitely a Christmas none of us will forget. And Phillip said we could start decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving this year so we could make up for all of our lost decoration time. Isn’t he great? : )
