26 December 2006

Merry Christmas

I was sitting here trying to think of a clever title but it seems that the simple standard is the way to go. Another Christmas has come and gone and I can definitely admit that it is the toughest time of the year to live away from Canada. First of all the season itself is not very Christmasy...no snow, no cold weather. The no snow thing is really starting to get to me...I haven't had a white Christmas in 3 years. Secondly, lack of local Christmas spirit. Although the commercial areas are bustling with Christmas money grubbing the average neighborhood just isn't into Christmas. There are very few lights, no carollers, Candy canes are hard to find etc. Lastly, and most importantly is the lack of family & family traditions. I didn't include friends because we have some wonderful friends here and I didn't want to slight them. There's something special about going to Gma and Gpa's, playing silly games, eating Ukranian food, listening to a Boney M christmas record, waking up to bacon and egss and stockings, going to Lakeview church Christmas Eve service, falling asleep in the living room with Gpa etc. Those are the things that I miss.

Now that we have a new family, Me, Nevada and Gemma, I guess it's time to start creating our own traditions and plans for the future. Realistically even if we were in Canada somewhere we may not always be able to do Christmas with our families so it's time to create those special activities for our own little unit. I'm not sure what they are yet and since Gemma is only a month old I guess she doesn't really care about what's going on. That gives us one year to start working on the McKenzie-England family Christmas rituals.

Merry Christmas to all from us!

2 comments:

Grandpa Steve said...

Nice thoughts and great picture.

So will earthquakes become a Christmas tradition?

Anonymous said...

Awww, that picture is so cute.

I know, it's so hard to figure out your "new" family traditions (for ALL types of occasions...). For us, we want to do what's meaningful for us, what we enjoy, what is feasible, what we can agree on, what won't offend the rest of our family, what will actually stick out in our memories, etc. We don't just want to do what we've always done because it's easy. Plus, sometimes the things we've always done, we don't actually enjoy.

Glad you're not being too hard on yourself for Gemma's 1st Christmas; Leif is almost 4 and we're just starting to get things figured out, make a decision, and get into a groove!

Merry Christmas!

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