We started out the season like we do every year with the annual Bluffton Christmas parade. The weather was perfect and two little ones loved it.....as usual. The highlight for me was not having to be concerned with Caroline running in front of the cars and floats as they passed. She was kept behind the lines by her big brother this year and momma was happy for the free help!
As the month went on I found myself longing to start and/or carry on traditions. One holiday tradition that I believe every family does is go look at Christmas lights. We actually (on demand) go through the streets of all the neighborhoods around us almost every night on our way home from school. There is one house on a particular street that has music with their lights and I'm instructed long before I even get to the street that I MUST turn and go see the flashing lights. But I wanted more lights. Bigger lights. Traffic and lots of people. So we packed up and went to Charleston to the Festival of Lights. We sat in our car with two extremely patient toddlers for almost two hours before reaching the starting point and it was worth it! The displays were big and bright and we had so much fun turning our heads to the left, then right, then left again. Next year we will take a different route and get there in plenty time to go on the train ride.
Christmas time was also a fun time for the kids when they get home and see all the packages that have arrived from our family far away. A lot of the boxes were delivered and hidden so "Santa" could bring them on Christmas Eve. Some nights we would get home for the day and boxes would be half way up our door. Thank Goodness for neighbors that keep watch over our house during the day!
There was a sad first about this Christmas and that was we didn't get to go see or have any family visit. I'm a very sensitive person and I will admit that it was hard. I grew up with many great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and Christmas was exhausting by the time the month was over. Going to this house and that house, eating this meal and that meal. It's what Christmas should be about.....family. This year though, I learned that even if that family is made up of two people, four people or forty people, FAMILY is special and I am thankful! My two children were old enough this year to know how Christmas worked and that was a happy first in lue of my sad first.
I'm looking forward to more family traditions being made at Christmas time. Ones that will be passed down throughout our children's generations. Ones that are Christ focused and full of fun gifts delivered from Santa!
.JPG)
