Surviving the holidays

I am sure you had the occasional or regular anxiety leading up to Christmas ? Finding the right gifts on your long list for everyone , making sure the house sparkles and the best meal yet will be served this year? We've all been there. Stressing over these self made rules in our head. They aren't written down anywhere; no law telling us it is mandatory to follow, or else!

Well lucky me; the list in my head was clear, non existent this year.

Instead I dealt with a new anxiety, one I wasn't familiar with and didn't like at all: Facing the holidays without my kids AND in a new town, in a new State, where we don't know a SINGLE person. We just have each other. Period.

Now if you are an introvert and enjoy your alone time, this would be the best news ever, right? 

 Not this one. I enjoy people (well the nice ones that is....). I enjoy emerging myself into community,  things that bring people together. Don't get me wrong. I love my husband and spending time together. But I must, and I will stress this, I MUST get out of the  "house " and surround myself with other humans, too.

So here we are in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  600 miles away from where we used to live, 5 months earlier. All other family members are scattered all over the country.  Name a state, chances are, we might have a relative residing there.

We kept it simple, the gift giving, that is. It's got to fit into our tiny home, right?

True to German tradition,  Christmas is celebrated on the 24th. In my family we normally have a festive meal in the afternoon,  followed by opening the gifts, one at a time to make it last longer. In past years,  with the kids still being at home, we' d americanize Christmas,  so to say. One gift got opened on the 24th, the rest on the 25th. Well this year there were no kids. So Joe figured we'd just open all gifts on the 24th. And so we did while playing some beautiful calm Christmas tunes in the background and enjoying the scent of a new candle I had just bought the day before, that literally made me feel like I just walked into a day spa!

 After we opened our gifts we had a delicious roast and gravy, dumplings, peas and carrots. Yum!

Our little home decorated with my late parents ornaments,  hung up on the windows,  as there is no room for a Christmas  tree. A few more little decor items came with us as well to make it feel like Christmas, tiny home style.

As always Google proved to be our best friend while trying to figure out what to do with ourselves on Christmas. I Googled and Googled, and then I Googled some more. Getting frustrated with the limited options presented to me. 

There was the Christmas caroling at old Mesilla or Christmas Eve service at said location at a church Joe wasn't too crazy about (but it sure looked adorable on the outside). Well stuck with these incredible choices we chose the 1st. We arrived about 15 minutes before they were done singing. 

Alright here we were. No way we were gonna go home again already. It had taken us longer to get there than the actual caroling we were listening to! 

We remembered we still had the unfinished list of homes in our truck.
You know the homes you find in every city that are all decked out with lights that you can....you guessed it...: GOOGLE! 

So we got in the truck and put together our route to view the homes. Let me tell you, Las Cruces peeps take their Christmas lights very serious!  They are professional light hanger uppers, lol! It was a drive well worth our time and gas. We included a stop for ice cream, some food for the soul!

We still had to figure out Christmas Day.  Oh geez! Well that list of choices was incredibly short: One Lutheran church in Las Cruces offered a morning service, that's it. Guess who went?

So yes, we survived Christmas. Would I have preferred to surround myself with family and friends? Absolutely ! But sometimes you have to work with what's presented to you and make the best of it. I'd like to think we did.

Merry Christmas!