This Christmas

If anyone doesn't know, the 4th of July is my favorite holiday. Everything about that time of year makes me smile. The BBQ's, swimming, the warm summer nights, friends, family, and lets not forget the fireworks. It's magical! Christmas is my second favorite holiday and in all honesty, I would say it's a close tie with the 4th of July.

Christmas seems to fly by every year. We only get about a month to really celebrate it and it just doesn't seem long enough. As I put up our Christmas tree this year, I couldn't wait for the sun to set and the darkness to fill our house. I looked forward to the lights on our tree illuminating throughout the house. As that moment approached, I remember telling Adam that I wish we could keep our tree up all year long. Besides, the corner in our living room will look so bare when it comes down.

Adam & I will be celebrating our fifth Christmas together and this is a year of firsts for our family. After five years together as a couple, we put up our very first Christmas tree. Shocking, I know.

The first year we celebrated Christmas together, we were engaged. Our first Christmas as a married couple, I was sick most of the month with morning sickness and then a nasty cold, so I didn't feel up to decorating our apartment or putting up a Christmas tree. Besides, we would be with our families that day.

The following year, on Mason's first Christmas, we were packing to move two weeks later and the thought of adding one more thing to our to do list, before we moved across country, was not appealing to me. Last year, I spent 6 weeks over the Thanksgiving & Christmas holidays in Katy with our families. Since neither of us were home, we didn't put a tree up. However, we did purchase our first tree a few days after Christmas last year.

Like I said previously, this is a year of firsts in our house this Christmas season. Not only do we have our first tree, it will also be the first time we won't be home with our families. I tried to focus on the positive at Thanksgiving and told myself that we just saw everyone a few weeks before that for Laura's wedding. We stayed busy and had great friends to spend the holidays with, so that helped. I have a feeling it will be harder for us come Christmas Eve.

It's hard for me to imagine not being with our families this year, but it's a part of life sometimes, especially when you live so far away and I know they will be with us in our heart. Saying that doesn't make it any easier. This will be Taylor's first Christmas and she is at such a fun age right now and it saddens my heart that our families won't get to share in this memory with her. It's moments like these that I wished we lived closer, so that we could be near our families so they can see the kids grow up.

The biggest first this year will be the new addition to our family. My brother, Kris, will be home with my parents a week before Christmas. Almost everyone in our family has had a chance to meet him, and I long for that day. You see, I have wanted a little brother since I was very young. Even when I was in college, I used to tell my parents that they were never too old to have another child. My wish is finally coming true and I wish I could be there to share his first Christmas as a member of our family.

So as Christmas approaches, I'm trying so hard to make the most of it. Our tree is up, the stockings are hanging, and the smell of food fills the house. But the best part of Christmas has nothing to do with all the decorations and food, although they are nice. It's about a baby being born in a manger, and the beginning of the best gift of all, Jesus.