| I spent every Christmas with my parents until they passed 11 years ago. When I lived in NYC I traveled by bus or train to Philly to be with my family. Even after moving to Nashville, Graham and I always visited for Christmas. For a few years after my parents passed, we continued traveling to Philly and spent the holidays with my sister Lisa, her husband, Fran, my nephew, Franny and my niece, Kelly. At some point through the years we decided to stay in Nashville and to not travel. Since then we started many new fun traditions, and we looked forward to the holiday season, even though a part of me always missed being with my family. This fall when we headed out onto our road adventure we had full intentions of spending Christmas with my sister, and her family. However, we realized shortly after we started traveling around FL that it didn’t make sense to turn around and drive back to Philly so soon after our arrival down south. Once we made the decision to stay in Florida, we then had to choose where we wanted to spend Christmas. The answer came quickly; at the beach! We were lucky to snag someone’s cancelled reservations and to book a state park right on the coast. Leading up to Christmas day we played lots of Christmas music, and watched Christmas movies to get in the spirit. I was unsure how it would feel for the two of us to be celebrating with only each other. Christmas morning we woke up early, listened to my childhood favorite albums like The Partridge Family Christmas. We ate sugar cookies from Wholefoods (rather than homemade ones). We had fun Facetime calls with friends and family. We made a delicious lunch, packed up the wagon and went to the beach. We spent the whole afternoon relaxing in the sun, splashing in the water, taking walks, eating, reading, and chillin”. It was the most perfect day I could have imagined! I am starting to believe that the more we are open to change, the more room there is for us to be surprised and delighted by the things we leave space for. Happy 2022 you all! |  |