Before I get into this post I just want to say this. I have written far too many holiday inspired posts this year (I think with this one it makes three. So yeah, too many for me) and I vow this will be the last one of the season.



This has been one of the toughest holiday seasons my family (it's seems so out of place still to say my Family, I got so used to my Wife and I), financially speaking. And I know damn well that;

A) We're not the only family telling this tale right now

and

B) I'm damn lucky for what I have

In light of this (or maybe in spite of), My wife and I (ahh, there it is. Familiarity) decided to do away with gifts for ourselves. Again, I doubt we are the only ones making this sacrifice. In fact I have a sneaking suspicion that for the next few years, complete with massive growth spurts, trips to the doctor, and whatever else (everything) that will carry a cost for RQ, that this may even become the norm. And I have absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact it's kind of nice.

You see, not having to buy any presents, or at least not many, means that we don't have to spend any time inside concrete boxes of fluorescent light with the aisle blockers, and the slow as humanly possibles, and the grab things off the rack and then just throw it on the grounds, and the I grabbed ninety nine things and they're all missing tags when it's time to check outs, and the......well I think you get the point. I'm not the biggest fan of the mass crowd shopping experience. Sometimes I'll go to another store if the one I planned on going to is out of control. And without those hair pulling, head banging on the wall, eye gouging out with hanger joyous trips to whatever store it is you decide to go to that day, it brings a little bit of life back to the holidays. At least for me.

Today was the day that it actually became Christmas in our house. The lights went up outside, a tree is standing in the living room. Nutcrackers are sure to be stirring in their boxes waiting for their departure from the prison that is January through the first half of December. The Duck Tales Christmas cutout and The Muppets Christmas poster will soon be hanging.  And like that, with barely a blink of an eye, Christmas has arrived (and I'm a little nauseous).

As I took the dog out for a run this afternoon (only one will run with me), I realized that the holiday spirit had managed to bite me in the ass this year. Something that doesn't normally happen until the day of. And I realized, that though this is the year we have the least (materially) it is also the year that we have the most (spiritually, mentally, or whatever you want to call it). This is our wealthiest Christmas. This is also the first year for my family. Traditions that had been our own are now being handed down. From here on out everything that we (my Wife and I) used to call ours will become his as well. Next year RQ will be helping put the lights on the tree, and showing his Mama (the vixen to the right there) where to put her nutcrackers, and where the stocking should go, and which tree he likes best. And then the transition will be complete. The traditions will become family heirlooms locked upstairs for eternity. Until he starts his own with his future family.

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