Wednesday, December 23, 2009

When Christmas Comes to Town

I feel like I can finally start thinking about and enjoying Christmas now that I am done teaching for the year. I will actually be at home in Utah for Christmas. It is just the second time in the last six years that I have been here. The previous two were spent in Arizona, here the year before that, and then the two before that in Seattle. So I guess it is a 2 years away and 1 year home pattern I have going.

I am going to miss being in Arizona. For those of you who have relatives close by and do things with them you are very lucky. I hope everyone appreciates their big families and relatives. In Utah all I have is the four of us in my family, subtract my brother in Mongolia for his mission, and my Uncle. Whenever my Uncle comes over to visit it is a family reunion. That is it for the Horan clan. Quality, but not much quantity.

For this reason, and just because my relatives are awesome, I love being able to go to Arizona where my mom has 6 siblings as well as my Grandma and Grandpa Fife. There I am very lucky to have both quality and quantity. Plus I actually have cousins! It is so much fun to spend time with them and play games and enjoy Christmas for what it really is, a time for family and to celebrate the life and birth of Christ. I feel like I have grown a lot closer to them just in the few weeks of time I have spent with them the past two years at Christmas. I wish I could see them more often.

Christmas here is nice though too, I get to spend some good time with my friends who stuck around in Utah. I also got to watch the BYU bowl game for the first time in a while, because my relatives don't have ESPN. I also will get to have a White Christmas, maybe even get to go and play in it a little bit. Christmas is what you make of it, and I plan to make it a great one.

I hope that you are able to do the same, enjoy it wherever you are and with whoever you are with. Take a moment to stop running around and relax and enjoy it for what it really is.

Merry Christmas!

3 comments:

Chris said...

I know what you mean about family. When I was growing up my favorite cousins lived in Boston, and I would get to see them, if lucky, once a year. Those were pre-internet days as well, so that was all the contact we had.

It's kind of weird/awesome how close you can get with such minimal interaction.

Anyway, have a Merry Christmas and don't let Jeremy burn down the apartment while I'm gone.

GrandmaBev said...

Merry Christmas to you. I'm sure you will have a good one. Enjoy your break from school. We'll be thinking of everyone as we gather together. We're glad you are part of the family.

Lorraine said...

We hope your Christmas is nice. Looks like we will have snow too.