Remember running to jump on your parents' bed to wake them up to open presents? Or putting out Christmas cookies and milk for Santa to eat when he stopped by your house? These memories feel so fresh, but they're not. Christmas is right around the corner and I've really thought a lot about how everything has changed over the years.
In addition to running into my parents' room and jumping on their bed, I remember setting up the Christmas tree with my mom every year. We would make hot chocolate and take the whole night to reminisce about each individual ornament my brother and I had made in school as we hung them on the tree. My dad used to love driving around various neighborhoods looking at all the different lights and decorations each house put up. Christmas gave the sense that everything was happy. It was the day families were able to put aside the issues to celebrate together.
But my, how that has changed over the past 10-12 years. The joy of going to the mall to see Santa has been replaced with fighting over a parking place to go shopping. My parents have to wake me up Christmas morning so that I don't sleep until noon. Instead of setting up the Christmas tree, my mom Facetimes me at college to show me she was decorating the tree. The time to go out and look at Christmas lights is filled with studying for first semester finals. And it's as if the holidays bring out the family issues.
Just because we can feel the changes, doesn't make them bad. It means we're growing up, which sounds terrifying in all honesty. But maybe that's where the lesson is- instead of acknowledging that everything is changing and hating every minute of it, we learn from it, we make the most out of the changes. We enjoy that walk across the whole parking lot because we let someone take that first-row spot, we try to wake up on time, we ask for pictures of the tree since we cannot be there, but most importantly we make as much time as possible for family. Christmas may never be the same as it was when I was 8, but I have to do everything I can to make it the best.
