Whether we like it or not, we are growing up and becoming, like, real humans in the real world. With that comes responsibilities such as bills, a real job and showering every day. As we get closer to all of these things, some of our child-like tendencies and behaviors we may be used to with our families change.

I’m in college, have a job that I work 20 hours a week, I have a steady boyfriend and basically a life completely different than the one I had in high school and while I lived with my family. I notice this when I Facetime my mom and see she painted the kitchen a different color or when I notice how fat my family dog has gotten. A lot has changed since I was living under their roof.

I notice this a lot more when the holidays roll around. In the past, I would come home for as long as possible and even tried staying home for a summer then quickly realized how different it is being on your own. For the first time ever I came home for Thanksgiving for one night. It was odd because just when you feel like you’ve caught up, it’s time to go back “home,” well, your new “home.”

If, like me, you have a significant other, you also have to take into account what they want to do, their work schedule, their plans, and their families. While my boyfriend came home with me for Thanksgiving, I’m sure he missed his family just like I would if the roles were reversed. For Christmas our plans are to spend Christmas Eve and morning with my family and then travel four hours to see his. Not spend all of Christmas with my mom and dad? Sounds so weird but now that I’m an adult (cringe) I have to do adult things like sharing Christmas with my boyfriend.

Something else, the Christmas lists have to eventually stop. I used to write out exactly what I want and made it so extravagant because of course the elves made it and Santa delivered. As I’ve gotten older I get more joy giving than getting. Even if it isn’t the greatest gift ever, watching my sister and little brother open what I thought they might like makes me absolutely melt.

~Santa Spoiler BEWARE~

One of the greatest let-downs of my childhood was finding out Santa wasn’t really sneaking in my chimney every year. Thanks mom for accidentally telling me when I wasn’t ready! Fortunately for me, I have a sweet little nugget in my family whose little eyes light up when he runs down the stairs on Christmas morning. But when he gets over it too, I will officially declare myself too old for Santa. Hopefully, it never happens.

Another crazy thing is getting your own Christmas tree! My family has 100-plus ornaments we use every year and I’m so used to filling up our tree with. My boyfriend and I got a sweet little tree and only have two ornaments I got off of Etsy. I tried sewing together popcorn and quickly gave up because 1.) I ate more than I should have and 2.) Ouch. My mom offered to give me some of her many, but I want to start a collection of my own for my kids to enjoy when they can decorate the family tree.

Growing up is weird and hard. We all have to do it eventually and holidays are a couple times a year we have to make our own traditions and forge our own paths like our parents did and theirs before them.

Happy Holidays peeps!