We’ve spent the last several days squeezing in as many family Christmas traditions as we could. We bought our tree on Saturday. We decorated it on Monday. Followed by our first eggnog toast in the kitchen. And we made our gingerbread houses and baked some cookies last night.

There’s still six days until Christmas, but the majority of our crafts and baking had to be done by today. We don’t have the luxury of another week because this year is Justis’ year to spend Christmas with his mom. That’s how it goes in a blended family. We have to get as much done as we can while the whole family is here to participate together.

Squishing all of our activities in to a few days between school and finals and work and winter concerts and school parties and shopping and still trying to get it all done before Justis leaves for his mom’s house is often a challenge. This year was no different. There’s just never enough time in the day or month to get everything done.

It’s always so sad to not have the whole family here for Christmas. Every other year we are minus one. It always feels like were missing something. There’s an empty spot at Grandma’s dinner table. There are still presents waiting to be unwrapped under the tree after we’ve opened all of our gifts. There’s no Justis in our Christmas pictures. It sucks.

But it’s also important for him to spend time with his mom and his sister. And share in their traditions. And eat their favorite foods together. And be in their Christmas pictures.

When I was a kid my mom lived thousands of miles away, but at Christmas time she came back to the Midwest to celebrate Christmas at my Grandma’s house. I would spend Christmas Eve with my mom and Christmas Day with my dad.

However, with a six hour distance between our house and Justis’ mom’s house, we don’t get that luxury. Instead he will be spending the next two weeks with his mom and we will just celebrate Christmas with him via a phone call on the 25th.

But, on the other hand, he really misses his mom during the year and has been looking forward to spending these next two weeks with her. He’s going to have so much fun bonding with his mom, hanging out with friends and picking on his little sister. And that’s a great thing.

Plus we’ll get an extra Christmas when he comes back home and opens the gifts waiting for him under our tree. So there are some things to look forward too. Even if it does still suck a little.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 11:54 pm and is filed under Hiding my hairy stepmom mole. Comments are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.