This will be a different kind of holiday season for our family.....there have been a few changes over the past year that have me wondering just how we'll handle this years holidays. I sensed this change a-coming last year as I decorated for Christmas silently and constantly praying that my father would survive his latest hospitalization and as I pondered my little sister's transition from a jet setting wife to a home loving mother.

While I haven't spent many Christmas or Thanksgiving days with my father since I've married and become a parent, it was different with my little sister ~ 14 years my junior, she has spent nearly every major holiday at my house since she was 8 years old (not to give away her age but I've been married for 27 years~~). She moved away this year~and she'll be moving into her new house Thanksgiving week ~ we haven't even discussed Christmas plans in all the hustle and bustle of her move.

Add into the equation that David's mom passed suddenly on August 2nd and now our Christmas Eve tradition will be changing as well (all but two Christmas Eve's in 27 years have been spent at her home).

As I puttered about this weekend bringing out the few Thanksgiving decorations that I own, I wondered how we'd deal with all of this change. I worry for my kids and my husband and know that they will take their cues from me......and so I pray that I can somehow help them through a strange holiday season and help them remember all the reasons that we celebrate those days in the first place.............