Today marks 7 days until Christmas! I remember being a little girl in a two bedroom apartment with one sibling, a little sister. Every Christmas Eve, like most kids, mom and dad would tell us that if we weren't asleep soon, Santa wouldn't make it to our house this year. We would scurry off to bed and toss and turn until 4am when we'd run into my parents room and tell them it was time to get up. Of course they'd send us back into our bedroom and tell us to lay down for a little while longer, it was too early. Ugh! We both cringed at that every year! Then 5am would roll around and we'd try again, with another failed attempt. Once 6am hit there was no taming us... if we were told to go back to bed we'd beg and pout, while jumping up and down on their bed. Never in the 14 years that we lived in that apartment did my parents get to sleep passed 6am on Christmas morning. The season was rich within our tiny souls. After opening all of the gifts my sister and I would take turns making phone calls to family to tell them what we had received that year. The warmth in your heart that as a child you thought was from gifts, but now you realized it was the love and appreciation you had for FAMILY, always made the holidays the best time of year. Fast forward eight years: My husband, my father and my father-in-law all work in the oilfield industry in Alaska. Which means they're not always home for the holidays. The oilfield knows no boundaries when it comes to birthdays, football games, weddings, etc. When you're meant to be there, you're going to be there. No questions asked! Every year you have to shuffle accordingly, depending on who's home and who isn't. This year not one of the three will be here. Out of pity for myself, which I know isn't completely warranted. I decided I am boycotting the "Commercial Christmas". I will not be putting up a tree, lights, my husband and I are not buying presents for each other. For me Christmas is all fun and games when it comes to decorating the house and buying gifts, but when you don't have your family together to share it. Those things are nice, but that's just it, THEY ARE THINGS! I would rather have none of it and have my family sitting next to me, than to have all the gifts and decorations in the world. If you're away from family for the holidays, just know you're not alone!
-NorthSlopeWife
