skittering through

I am not uber Christmassy this year. I am living with one foot in this year and one in last December. I keep remembering where we were this time last year and the desperation and despair we felt. Mom was dying and we were facing our third cancer-dominated Christmas.

Christmas is a pressure-cooker time of year no matter how you look at it. With kiddies you can't avoid Christmas either. Good in some ways, not so good in others.

So I am a big fan of the traditions we have this year. It's holding Christmas together for me. As long as we hit these milestone traditions, it will still feel like Christmas for our children. So the tree went up on the first of December as usual. That was good.

And we did the annual Christmas ornament trip last weekend. The kiddies each get a new Christmas ornament for themselves every Christmas. We have done this since they were born and they love picking through their box allocating the ornaments to each of them. When they leave home they will taking their own special box of memories with them.

And then there's the gingerbread house this weekend and Jesus' birthday party next weekend. One step at a time and it will all be ok.