It’s a Wonderful Life is how I would describe this holiday season.  It’s a Wonderful Life is such a great movie because George realizes that the only thing really important in life are friends and family.  I feel the same way.  Christmas used to be all about what presents I received, but as I’ve gotten older it is more about spending time with friends and family .  My parents always buy me a wonderful present (this year it was a MacBook Pro).  Don’t get me wrong, I definitely appreciate the gesture and LOVE the gifts, but that’s not what the holiday is all about.

Some of my friends choose to go out of town away from family for Christmas.  For me, this would be the worst Christmas ever because I’d be away from the people I care about the most.  This year, our holiday season started with Thanksgiving.  We had Thanksgiving dinner at our house , which I hadn’t done in a number of years.  We bought a new house this summer so I enjoyed having the gang here.

We were invited to several Christmas parties this year, which hadn’t happened in many years.  One of the parties was in our neighborhood, which gave us an opportunity to meet many of our new neighbors.  I had two baking days with my mom where we bake cookies and candy all day long.  This is always a great time…and exhausting.

This year, my mother-in-law took my niece to see The Nutcracker and I was was invited.  It was wonderful to be invited to go with the Hill’s / Graddy girls.  My sister-in-law made it extra special by buying tickets for the tea party after the show.  As soon as we were done, we headed over to my cousin’s birthday party for a few hours before winding up at our house.  Later, we headed to Buca di Peppo for dinner with my family including my niece who flew in from Connecticut to be here for Christmas.  Love her and miss her so it was great to see her.

Christmas Eve was spent at our house again, followed by a Christmas Eve Candlelight service at First Baptist Windermere.  We have gone to a candlelight Christmas Eve service for as long as I remember and it part of our tradition that look forward to every year.   We capped off the season on Christmas Day at my brother-in-laws home.  He has Christmas Day every year and always does an outstanding job with the pasta meal.  Icing on the cake is that I won the annual wine tasting — 3rd victory in 5 years!  We still have my brother-in-laws birthday in a few days and I’m sure we’ll have a few family dinners before everyone resumes their normal life.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

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