It recently came to my attention that my family intends to spend Christmas in Colorado, which makes sense.  Two of the five in question live there, and the other three know where to find good snow in December.  Unfortunately, my Colorado plans for the year don’t include December.

I was really sad about that at first.  My family is fun to be around, especially at Christmas.  My mom indulges my love of corny movies, my dad and I wear armadillo slippers on Christmas morning, and Santa still writes letters to me about how he’s trying to quit smoking or how it’s cheaper to outsource toy-making instead of using elves.  Definitely warms the heart of this girl.

I briefly considered forgetting about my planned trip to Colorado in September.  That made me more sad than missing Christmas, so back to the drawing board I went.  Then I remembered that there are these modern inventions called phones and postage (so cutting edge, that postage!).  Santa and I can still correspond.  My armadillo slippers are safely tucked away in my house, so that’s a go.  And I conquered the traditional Christmas stollen recipe last year.

Nothing to fear.  This year’s holiday season will be about getting to the post office in time to mail presents to Colorado, about celebrating the birth of Christ in my own lovely church, about enjoying my favorite canine friend, and about creating new traditions.  There will be gallons of warm apple cider consumed, an embarrassing number of Christmas movies watched, and possibly a mini adventure on Christmas day.  Feeling good about Christmas in Virginia, and now we return to our regularly scheduled program (also known as “It’s really hot outside!”).