Driving West this evening into the sun, I breathed a sigh of heavy relief.  Christmas is over.  

Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas.  I love the shopping, and the gift giving.  I love laughter and time spent with family.  It’s just that I also happen to be an idiot who signed up to take a winter class, despite my obvious scholastic exhaustion, and that idiocy has tinted this holiday season.  Holiday seasons tinted with, “Holy Crap I Should Be Studying Right Now, Instead Of Having A Really Good Time With All These People That I Love” are just not as much fun as they should be.  

All that aside, this holiday season has been one for the books.  The older I get, the more I enjoy spending time with family, both Zack’s family and mine.  My parents have become less parent-y and more friend-y.  Over with Zack’s family, I am the beloved “Tia,” meaning “aunt” in Spanish.  My fantastically precious nieces both call me Tia, (a name SarahI picked out for me, though I couldn’t have done a better job thinking of an aunt-name myself) which I love.  There’s just something great about being older, and being able to appreciate family for who they are: the people that love you no matter what. 

Even Mom’s family christmas was really nice this year, whereas usually it kind of stresses me out.  Mom has 9 brothers and sisters in her family, and when everyone (100ish people?) piles into the same (large) room for eating or a White Elephant Gift Exchange, it can get a little chaotic.  Not this year, though.  It was crazy as usual, sure, but something changed.  Maybe this was the year where I finally started feeling comfortable at the adult table.  Maybe it’s because I’m married and settled and happy.  I’m not sure why, but it was a good year.  Not a single aunt or uncle tried to tell me what I should or shouldn’t be doing with my life (which is the usual progression of the afternoon), which I’m taking to mean that they are satisfied with who I’ve grown to be, who I’ve married, where we live, and with my chosen profession.  A Christmas without advice.  I never thought I’d see the day. 

Icing on the Christmas Cake this year is that I tried out a few new recipes, and one came out looking EXACTLY like the picture.  That NEVER happens to me.  Sure the food I make tastes good, but oooh, it never looks as good as the pictures, until Friday.  Friday I turned over a new leaf in cooking.  I am now totally excited to try to make more things that come out looking as good as the pictures.  And I’m going to–sometime in March when I can have a life again.  

I can’t wait for March.