Holiday musings

My last post was about Christmas cancelled, well at least the shared version of Christmas. We still had our feast and opened presents, sans many attendees due to our illness.
We ended up celebrating the Solstice in a very low key but perfect way. Some friends invited us over for dinner, mulled wine, and sledding. The temperature was moderate, and while the moon was shrouded slightly in clouds, it still brightened up the sky enough to make a fabulous sledding experience. We had a great time. Mulled wine is the perfect winter treat, by the way. Here's a recipe: www.wine.about.com/od/holidayswithwine/r/mulledwines.htm
I enjoy the holidays, but I also look forward to getting back into the routine. Looking ahead to January too makes me feel that we are even closer to spring.
A quick recap of Christmas celebrated (as opposed to cancelled) is that I went up north to my hometown. My aunt and I rode together. There is something especially wonderful about 4 hours each way in a car. We shared a lot, and it's always thought provoking and insightful to spend time with her. I imagine some of our conversation will be referenced in future posts as we covered so many topics.
The weather was beautiful. My cousin has an amazing log home, and the highlight of the home, to me, is the floor to ceiling stone fireplace. Can you ask for a more perfect setting for a Christmas celebration? Well, there is one more detail that made me pause and think, "wow, this is like a storybook" - her three year old blonde haired brown eyed little girl with braids and wearing a flannel dress, opening the gifts under the huge Charlie Brown see through Christmas tree. It was really sweet.
I didn't miss my kids any more than I normally do. I think it was the combination of growing up believing it was just another day, and the reality that it is just another day. They were having their own fun and building their own lives elsewhere. I think that the divorce process has taught me a lot about letting go.
Eventually, my kids will leave and be out on their own, pursuing their own dreams and making their own traditions. Since I have the tendency to be a "holder-onner", protective, sentimental, the whole bit, it's been a good lesson for me to think about the fact that my kids are their own people. Their world will not always revolve around me, nor would I want it to. The job of a parent is to raise their children to be free adults -take nature as a lesson. Baby animals are taught skills for their survival, and then they are set free (or pushed from the nest) to explore this great big world all on their own.
In conclusion, it's nice to be back home.
I went to yoga tonight and had such a fabulous work out that I felt like I had just had a massage. I really liked the poses and order of poses we did tonight.
Now it's to bed early to be able to be a functioning drone at work tomorrow. I'm so ready for a vacation, somewhere warm .... I'm visualizing fist fulls of warm sand, staring out at the ocean, smiling.
Good Night and Happy New Year! One more big holiday to go.