Our First Ever Christmas Alone

This Christmas was a bit different than any in the past.
There used to be hustle and bustle.
Running here, running there.
Packing the vehicle full of luggage and presents.

So a few years ago my husband and I decided we would
break all other tradition, and we would have Christmas
morning at our own home with our children.

Well, since all of our family are a couple hours away,
this was a tough decision.

But when we made that decision, my mom let me
know very quickly that her and my dad would love
to be at our house Christmas morning, if we were okay
with it, so they could see their grandkids open gifts.

It's always worked out beautifully.
UNTIL THIS YEAR.
My dad came down with the flu on
Christmas Eve. There was no way he was
making the trip to Panama City Christmas morning.
He couldn't.
And even if he could, I wasn't so
sure I wanted to take the risk
(we haven't decided on flu shots yet for this year.)

Once reality hit me that this would be the first year in 
30 years (yup, 30 years, folks) that I wouldn't see my 
parents on Christmas Day, I put my big girl panties 
on so that my kids (especially Autumn) would have a 
good day despite the fact that it was just gonna be our
little family of four.  

It turned out to be great.
We had (thankfully) got the kids a few board games
and a couple movies as their gifts.
So, we made breakfast for lunch
and spent the rest of the day just us ...
playing games, watching movies, talking ...
in our Christmas jammies!