This has been a bitter sweet thanksgiving for several reason but the biggest of which is the fact that this may very well be the only time that I get to be with my family during this holiday season. Now that may not seem like a big deal to some people & others might say, “With 8 people, is missing one really that big of a deal?” Well, I would like to think so! =) Actually it is a big deal for the very simple reason that over the last 24 years, there has never been a Fall/Winter holiday season where we haven’t all been together. There are certain traditions that just won’t be the same or won’t happen at all this year. Not to mention the fact that after 24 years, the holidays are my family.

I joked with my mom that I was having difficulty deciding what TV-dinner to eat on Christmas day…but the fact is Christmas tradition has been wholly based around my family my entire life; whether it is mom’s sour cream coffee cake and breakfast casserole, or dad’s role as Santa, or the boxers we all have to wear, or dad’s speedo (ok, that only happened once but it was the funniest thing I have ever seen)…Even as I write this I am feeling slightly guilty because I could very easily say that Christmas just isn’t Christmas w/o my family…even that it isn’t worth celebrating…But i am forgetting the most important thing! The holidays reason & purpose has nothing to do with my family or me. It is suppose to be a day of acknowledgement and worship of the Birth of Christ; literally the birth of our Saving Grace; As Christians, it is the birth of our salvation and the birth of our Way of spending eternity in paradise, while escaping our deserved doom of burning forever.

Will this Christmas be christmas I discover the Real Reason for the season?