Up until two years ago, I spent every one of my Christmases with my sister and her kids. Why? Well, in my opinion, kids make Christmas just that much more special. They remind me of the magic of the holiday, and their excitement for it is contagious.
Then, two years ago my sister and her kids moved to Hawaii, and I held a big family Christmas at my house with John and his family from Australia. It was spectacular. It included kids (our niece and nephew) and was the first time some of his family had seen snow, let alone celebrated Christmas in a winter wonderland. I hung stockings for everyone along our stair rail, we had a feast of roast lamb (John's favorite), and we danced, played in the snow, and had a jolly old time. What also made that Christmas probably the most special of any in my life, was that on that very morning I had my first positive pregnancy test! The best Christmas present ever! Can you see the joy in our faces?
Within hours of finding out we were pregnant, on Christmas morning 2010!
Then last year, John and I were new parents and we traveled to Australia to spend Christmas again with his family. It was my first time experiencing the holiday with my own child and my first warm (actually quite hot) Christmas! We spent the day with family, eating lots of yummy traditional family holiday foods, and swimming in the pool of course!
Evan's first Christmas, and my first in Australia!
Of all of these holiday memories, what makes them all so special to me is that they were spent with family. A lot of family in fact! I dearly love everyone on both sides of my family, and only wish my family was closer so that I could spend every holiday with all of them in the same year. This year will again be a big family affair, only this time I'll be back in Kansas at my dad's farm, along with my husband, son, and my sister and her kids as well! I look very much forward to seeing their faces light up on Christmas morning like I did so many years in the past, and I hope my own son will be old enough this year to start to feel the magic that comes with Christmas.
2012 Christmas photo with Santa
And since I'm reflecting, here's what this photo looked like one year ago:
2011 Christmas photo with Santa
1 comment:
That's so awesome you found out you were pregnant on Christmas- how fun!
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