Christmas Good News....no one is worried!

Arizona Christmas Table

Christmas Past (2012)

My Oregon Home

We are not going back to our home in Oregon this Christmas. It was a big decision for us because we miss our family. I personally don't want them to worry about me and I feel some hidden duty to supervise what is going on back there. Besides that we honestly have so much fun together. But if there are two things I learned this past year that are important to my family, they are:

1. I am not in charge. 
2. My family does not worry about my husband and I.

I know, it just doesn't seem possible that some of the things that I miss are the very things that caused me so much worry. It is strange. Really, worry is not a happy companion on my daily walks and that is what the need for control brought me. It took me a while to understand that a huge load had been lifted from my shoulders. Now I am very grateful for that piece of news. The realization that my children were not worried that we would be lost if we didn't come home left us free to enjoy what we were doing here in our winter home. I don't like for my children to be worried.

Being present at every family celebration really is a lot of fun. But after my husband and I retired, we began to travel and we have been at home less and less over the years. Christmas was the last special occasion we flew home to attend. So not going home is the breaking of a tradition in our lives.

How did we arrive at this place? Well, as with most benchmarks, the signs were all there. Our children all chose this year to make their children the priority. I actually liked the fact that they had arrived at a place where they were willing to branch out and become stand alone family units. It is a healthy thing for them.

But let there be no mistake...I will be urging my husband home for the holidays next year and we will be having a Christmas in the middle of the summer in 2014 too. We will all Skype on Christmas Day and we will open present together even though we are apart. Some things will never change...the love and ties we all have as a family will never go away. They all know I will always be in charge just a little bit.

Merry Christmas everyone...I love having you stop by so don't be a stranger!

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