Home for Christmas

At Christmas, all roads lead home. ~Marjorie Holmes

Welcome Christmas…

This is the first Christmas in my new home. As written in an earlier entry, I prepared for this season with mixed emotions. There have been moments when I have faced the objects of Christmas past and felt a great sense of loss. This year has been strained to draw tradition near in a home so new and empty of history.

Hopeful to be surrounded by a sense of Christmas “familiar”, I have come into my home during these past days grateful to feel the comfort of my Christmas past. Sitting in front of my tree I am delighted to see ornaments that could tell stories of my life. There are nativity scenes, candles and other decorations filling space in my home and in each place I am gifted with memories.

Nothing is impossible! As I welcomed my parents to share in Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we spent our time eating good foods from restaurants recently discovered and journeying into the warmth and light of beautiful places filled with others to celebrate Christmas Eve. I woke on Christmas Day, blessed with a sense of gratitude ~~ gratitude for memories already made in this new place I call home. We have had a true celebration. With the excitement of exchanging gifts with family, the delight in seeing nature’s beauty, the search for the most impressive Christmas lights, the inspiration to sit in a church where people knew my name and the comfort surrounding a table with new friends as we shared Christmas dinner, there was little lacking.

“At Christmas, all roads lead home.” While reading this quote I have a fresh perspective on its meaning. Even in a time when so much feels awkward and unfamiliar, I have found new roads that can lead to home. Nothing is impossible!