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Christmas this year was…different.
Abe had to work on Christmas Eve for the first time ever in our almost 10 years together. Family members were missing from the celebrations. And we didn’t have anywhere to go or anyone to host on Christmas Day.
It wasn’t horrible. It was just different.
But if I’m being honest, I had a really hard time accepting that our family traditions that I look forward to all year long were going to be different.
I was extra anxious the days leading up to Christmas.
I was struggling with the disappointment of change.
I was angry.
I was sad.
And it was just hard.
I absolutely hated how I was feeling and how I was treating my husband. I tried hard to snap out my funk but it just wasn’t working.
But as the days went on, I was reminded over and over again how incredibly blessed we are. God knows my heart and how much I love family and traditions. And even though things weren’t going to be the same this year, He made our new Christmas traditions exactly how they should be.
CHRISTMAS 2018
Christmas Eve morning Abe went off to work and the kids and I finally baked some cookies for Santa.
We then spent most of the day at my parent’s house with my brother and his family. We opened presents, played with new toys and ate yummy food my mom made for us. It was a really nice day. And Abe was eventually able to join us around 4 that afternoon! It was such a nice surprise to have him at my parent’s house with us even if it was only for a couple of hours.
Christmas Eve night we went over to my Dad’s side of the family for our big Sutter Family Christmas Eve PJ party. We ate more yummy food and played our big gift exchange game- Sutter rules definitely applied.
We got home pretty late so we quickly set out our cookies and Diet Coke for Santa (did you know Santa likes Diet Coke?) and put the boys to bed.
Connor was the first one awake on Christmas morning and it did not take him long to wake up everyone else! The boys took some time checking out the presents under the tree while Abe and I woke up a bit and got our coffee going.
We spent the morning opening presents and eating Monkey Bread. Both boys were so happy and thankful for their gifts. It was a really nice, quiet morning.
It was a pretty mellow day. We played with new toys and ate tons of food and sweets. We eventually made it outside for a family walk to the park. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw that Sister brought her shopping cart with her and it was adorable, obviously.
The Christmas traditions that I grew up with are changing and that is sad. Change is hard sometimes but God has bigger plans than I could ever imagine for my family. Even with all of the difficulties this season, I was constantly reminded of how truly blessed I am. God has given me the most perfect little family and I am so very thankful. Knowing I get to make new traditions with my own family is something I am choosing to be excited for.
I hope you all had a great Christmas with your family. Whether it was exactly how you planned it to be or if you, too experienced some hard moments, I hope you were able to end the day feeling blessed for what and who God has put in your life.
