My husband and I both grew up on the East Coast and that’s where all our family still lives. Even when we lived within driving distance to both our families, holidays were tricky. When we lived in Connecticut, we’d spend Christmas Eve with my mom in Westport and then around noon on Christmas Day we’d load up the car and drive to Baltimore to spend Christmas night with my husband’s family. We accomplished the goal of trying to spend time with as much family as possible but it always left us feeling a little fractured and drained.
In the back of my mind, I knew when we had kids, I didn’t want to travel. I don’t remember ever traveling for Christmas when I grew up. I have fond memories of coming down the staircase in my own house, in my new PJs, to a sparkling tree, and a pile of gifts in special candy-striped “Santa” wrapping paper. We had stockings filled to the brim and we threw tissue paper into a crackling fire. It was cozy and homey and there was no question of whether Santa would have a hard time finding us on Christmas morning.
And now the time has come—we have kids of our own and we will not be traveling for the Christmas holiday. To be fair, we just returned from a three week East Coast adventure for Thanksgiving plus some. We hit three states and saw lots of family and friends.
So upon our return home, we hauled out the Christmas box, dug out the lights, and hung the stockings on the mantel. The holiday cards are rolling in along with the endless stream of battered brown packages.
I’m excited for the city to empty out and slow down as most people head off to visit their families or take exotic family vacations. I’m excited to wake up in our own bed and maybe even let the twins join in for a good ‘ole fashioned snuggle session. I’m excited to stay in our matching Christmas jammies all day by a roaring fire, drinking peppermint hot chocolate. I’m less excited about wrangling two crazy (almost) toddlers, desperate to touch the fire and spill our hot chocolate. I’m thrilled that we won’t have to pack and unpack and plan and prep and schlep and stress.
This is only our second Christmas in San Francisco. Last year doesn’t really count since the twins were about six weeks old and we’ve basically blocked out that entire period of time.
I one hundred percent love that it’s just going to be our cozy family of four (plus our pup!) for Christmas.
