I remember year after year after year Christmas would come around and our family would pile into our small plane to make the long trek to see my grandparents for the holidays. We did it EVERY year! It was always a bit stressful and honestly I think some years I dreaded it. We would inevitably be at each other's throats by the time we landed, escaped the tight quarters and moved all the luggage to my grandparents vehicles to drive to their house. I remember being tightly crammed into the big old cars they always drove surrounded by all of our stuff.
I can feel the ride to their house, the tension of the trip always melting away in that short little drive. Then arriving at their house and stepping in the door that always smelled exactly the same. I remember the puzzle closet, the little room I always stayed in, every square foot of their house and yard. Their elation at our arrival and excitement to have us there for just a few days.
I remember the time for the trip coming around year after year and during the insecure junior high and high school years when I thought my peers were so so important it seemed a burden to miss the chance for holiday celebrations with them. I remember being too "cool" for our annual family trip. I remember getting there and finding my parents cordless phone in my suitcase because I'd talked to my friends the entire time I was packing and somehow dropped it in the bag too. I remember it all felt mundane.
But looking back now, what I wouldn't give for one more of those "mundane" trips. To jump out of bed every morning as early as possible in order to sneak in some one on one time with my grandma before the rest of the house woke up. To drink coffee with her and my grandpa, the kind that made you into an adult. On my favorite mornings we would swing slowly on their porch swing and just chat about everything and nothing. The same swing all of us cousins finally overweighed and pulled down because it couldn't hold all of us anymore. To enjoy the overload of food that my grandma must have cooked for a month before we came. Even to smile for the obligatory family photos one more time.
It is not that the holidays are not amazing now, seeing the holidays through your children's eyes is one of the greatest blessings as a parent. No I wouldn't trade any of our new traditions anymore than I would give up the new family members surrounding the tree this holiday season. Yet I do deeply miss the ones who have gone before us and will probably always long for one more "mundane" family trip and the comfort of the old traditions year after year.
So if you're burnout this holiday season on the mundane of the same old same old, trying to find time to squeeze in your traditions and knowing the inevitable family drama will ensue. Think of this simple message and know one day you will miss all of it. You will wish for the sibling squabbles and the overwhelming effort it takes some years just to get everything together to go celebrate. It may not seem like it now but you will so take a deep breath, soak up each moment and enjoy all you can! I know I will.
I'll be creating new family traditions that my kids will very quickly be too "cool" for and enjoying their discomfort of the obligatory family photos that already drive them nuts!! I will pause and soak it all in and know that one day these will be the "mundane" traditions that I will miss.
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