The holidays have come and gone. Too fast, as usual.
We are very blessed to have celebrated the holiday season together. Between our vacation the week after Thanksgiving, my husband’s leave and the way the holidays fell we actually had a lot of time together this year; lots of productive days with many things checked off our to do list and lots of lazy, family days.
It spoiled us a little, actually. Like many military families, we do not take for granted the time we have together - especially the holidays. We are thankful for those doing their part and serving their country overseas or training or even on duty. Service members and their families continually make sacrifices each and everyday, this time of year is no exception. They are never far from our minds. And we know that being together again this year was a gift that we are thankful for. Next year could be very different for us!
Since my husband and I grew up very close to one another, we have always traveled back home to visit our families. Now that our boys are a little older, we are currently celebrating being diaper-free for the first time in four years, we decided we wanted to start some holiday traditions in our own home instead of spending most of our time traveling from family to family in the car, living out of suitcases - especially since our deployment timeline could be anywhere within the next year or so.
We aren’t sure what next year will look like so it was important to start traditions this year. After all the blood sweat and tears, and money, we put into buying our first home, I needed to spend one Christmas here before we PCS or my husband deploys!!
I wanted to document my boys coming down the stairs in their Christmas PJs, have pictures taken of the four of us by the tree, spend the day in our PJs, playing with all the new toys and not having anything on our agenda except being with one another.
This year we had all of those wonderful memories. We had a great Christmas in our own home and were even lucky enough to have some visitors with us. But what I did not account for was my 4-year-old remembering that we usually spend holidays back in New York.
He cried and said he wanted to go to Buffalo to “see his whole family”. He missed his grandparents, great grandparents, aunt and uncles and sweet baby cousin. It broke my heart to see my sweet little boy so sad.
I am so thankful that despite the distance between us, my husband and I have managed to keep our long distance families close to our boys. Each time we visit or we have family visit us, it gets harder and harder to say “See ya later”. And this holiday apart was no different. My young son knew that something was different this year. Although wonderful in ways, it was different. No chaos or busyness. And he wanted to know why we had to live so far away from family. We were able to Skype and talk on Christmas and, in our own way, we were together with them but I too missed being there in person.
My heart is a little broken for my children because their childhood will be so different from the one I had. I was not prepared for them to have an opinion or emotions about our decision to stay home this year or the life we live (by husband being a Marine).
We thought by staying home, we were giving them memories and tradition. But we learned that those memories and traditions had already begun years ago. It doesn’t matter where we go, family is what matters the most during the holiday season. We may not be able to travel home every year but I will continue to keep my boys close to family no matter how far apart we may live.
