Not the best Christmas Memories

Happiness is having a large, loving ,caring, close-knit family... in another city.
~George Burns

I can't help but to love this quote. Don't get me wrong, I love my extended family but I've also grown to like not being so near that they can make demands of my time.

Some of my worst Christmas memories (yes you read that right I said worst Christmas memories) were of my Grand-parents coming over to our house at 4:30 or 5 am they would bang on the windows to wake us all up (and scare the crap out of us), pack up our presents and clothes and bring us to their house. We would open all of our gifts, have Christmas dinner (around noon) and then after our grandparents were sick of us they brought us home...without our Christmas gifts. We were allowed to open the gifts but we were not allowed to play with the toys at our grandparents home- talk about having ones Christmas joy taken away from you. They'd make up some excuse to not put them in the car and not bring them over to our house for another 2 or 3 days. It broke my heart that they did this to us and of course my poor Mom didn't know what to say because this the was mother of her deceased husband. It wasn't until I told my Mom that my grand-parents were ruining Christmas. My grandma would make snippy comments about how spoiled my sister and I were... even at 7 years old I knew that this was untrue and I would think to myself...um my mom is raising us on her own on a pittance, she was just barely able to make ends meet you don't help her out at all and my Dad is dead, exactly how are we spoiled? So for me the best Christmases are those that are celebrated in my own home with my immediate family.


Before we had children, we had spent Christmas with my husbands family, it was okay not too bad really and were weren't bombarded with having to travel or see people that we did not know. Then in 2005 Lucien was really wanting to go home for Christmas, I told him that this was a bad idea but he wanted to go - so we went. Was it a bad Christmas? Not the worst on record but not a good one either. Went to the bother and sister in-laws home where they had invited way too many people to make this an intimate "family" gathering. Tons of people that we didn't know (and weren't being introduced to either), and other things happening while we were there that left my family feeling "why are we here?". We traveled so far to be there with my husbands' family and yet we felt as if we were among strangers.

So after that experience my husband now understands why I feel that HOME is where Christmas should be celebrated and that HOME is a place where people love you. And that being HOME isn't always about going back to the place where you spent your childhood but rather where you are now surrounded by those that love you- it's a place in your heart.