The Upside

I keep trying to find the upside to being away from family this holiday season. It's not easy, not this year. It's far easier to see the downside and to get hung up lamenting over what we don't have rather than focusing on what we do. Sadly, a lot of our upside includes things like not having to wrap as many gifts or drive to anyone's house on Christmas day or not having to tell anyone that we're so busy. Because we're not. We have a total of two Christmas parties to attend and all of our Christmas shopping is done. We have a real tree in the living room and the Christmas radio station is playing from our stereo almost all day.

It helps that the cold has finally come through so we can have a fire in the fireplace while we decorate the tree tonight. There will be lights but only a few ornaments. The ones we have are old and precious and are certainly not toddler-proof. Those that make the cut will be placed high, hopefully high enough that the cat doesn't get any ideas.