Merry Christmas! ~ What is your Christmas tradition, here we do coffee or cocoa and hot sticky buns.. It has been a busy month, and this year I’m buying the buns, not baking from scratch. Actually my normal tradition is to bake up a storm. I made fudge, and I mixed up cookies but haven’t made them yet… Just not feeling it this year.
This year we still aren’t in the new house, and I’ve been told we will be next year, maybe then I can decorate and find my Christmas spirit. (Must be in a box packed away)…..
Tonight we will go to the Christmas service at church, that always helps a little. Then off to the brother in laws house for a visit, before heading home. Christmas morning will be quiet here, no littles excited to open gifts… it almost feels like a chore anymore…
Eventually, my wonderful hubby will emerge for the day. The child, .. (she’s 23 this year, and possibly her last Christmas at home, yes I’m sad about that, but I can’t wait to watch her spread her wings… ) The “child” will hopefully be up around 10 to do presents, I still bought her Christmas eve jammies ❤ Which she put on when we got home from church last night. … Our house is growing empty and maybe that is part of why this Christmas is sad? My ultimate dream is to have the new house built and have ALL the kids come late on Christmas day, we eat dinner, open gifts, go night sledding (if there’s snow), cocoa and a Christmas movie, to wake up together for a big family breakfast… Life is short and I want to really cherish all the Christmases I have left with them. My oldest three will not be here this year, and my heart hurts, because I miss them all so much…
You don’t think about them leaving when they are little, and when they finally do leave, you can’t wait for them to come back… sometimes they just don’t and as a parent it is heartbreaking. I’d give anything for them to walk through my door, but as they say, ” they have their own lives now.”
As a mom, you always hope the person knocking on the door, or stopping by the shop is one of the kids. I love and cherish any time I get with them. Maybe they don’t see it, but I don’t get around like I used to, and I’m not as present as i want to be, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t lasso the moon for them.
So when we wake up to our 2025 Christmas, please remember… it isn’t about how many gifts are under the tree, or how big your tree even is… Especially when the kids are little… its about family…This year I get to spend it with my husband and our youngest,.. …When my mom married my step dad, I was blessed with two brothers and a sister, and two wonderful uncles who are now my neighbors, here on the bluff. I grew up with tons of family around me and that’s dwindled a lot over the years, So these “new” family members mean the absolute world to me, even if they don’t know it.
So,.. make memories… bake cookies, make ornaments, make snow angels, sing songs, go look at the lights, and most of all… love each other 
In a world where you can be anything, be honest, be good, be grateful, be kind,
and be amazing!
Butterflies on the bluff 