The Ghosts of Christmas Past

We haven't had a normal Christmas, well, ever. And by we, I mean Pat and I and the kids. Growing up I had plenty of normal Christmases, but apparently my life got complicated when I met Pat...

When Bella was 5, our first Christmas together, she spent part of the day with her birth mom and part of the day with Pat and I at my parent's house. But it was a little awkward trying to coordinate timing and multiple families, since everyone wanted to spend Christmas with Bella. Plus, Bella didn't talk to us yet, so it was very quiet, even when she was there.

When she was six, we spent the day at my parents. Everyone went a little over-the-top on presents for her, mostly because her mom had just died and it seemed like the right thing to do. I tried to incorporate some of her mom's family traditions into our traditions, but the only one I was ever told about was making pierogi on Christmas Eve night. I made pierogi to go with our Swedish pancakes and Bella refused to eat them, so that tradition went out the window. I also convinced Pat that he had to put up a Christmas Tree for the first time because little girls need Christmas trees and that shouldn't even be a question.

I actually don't remember much about Christmas when Bella was 7. That's probably because we got married a week later. I was adamant about separating Christmas and wedding, but apparently the wedding filled my head anyway, because I don't remember hardly anything about that Christmas...

Then Christmases started to get more interesting...

The next year, my family went on a cruise. Since Bella would have been the only kid, we decided to let her spend a week with Grammy and Grandpa Jim instead. I felt pretty bad about that, so I decided that we would do Christmas anyway, we would just do it early. So we celebrated Christmas on December 17. We started the advent calendar early and counted down everything, just like if it had been actually Christmas. We didn't get to go to a Christmas Eve service, but that was the only thing we missed. Then she went up north and Pat and I spent Christmas on a boat in the Caribbean.

The next year, when Bella was 9, was supposed to be a normal year. But then Gabe showed up early and we suddenly found ourselves having Christmas in the nicu. My parents packed up our stockings and all the presents and we did the best that we could. But having one member of the family in the hospital drastically changes Christmas...

Last year was a fairly normal Christmas, except that we were in Phoenix. There were palm trees and outdoor pingpong tournaments and definitely no Christmas Tree Hunting or snow. But my whole family was together and it was a fun Christmas, all together.

This year, we were home. We had Christmas in our own house on December 25. No one was in the hospital, we were together and it was really, really good. For the first time in 7 years, I got to have a normal Christmas with my husband and my kids, together.

My parents came over and we opened presents. Poor Gabe would have been happy to get one present and then plau with that for the day. He could not process the thought of waiting and opening more presents.

Then the kids played with their new presents while we worked on dinner.

Nathan and Cassie came over for dinner. They brought presents for the kids, including a whole box of CheeseIts for Gabe.

It was a pretty low-key Christmas. But it was really, really good.