Every 10 Years, Christmas Eve "Alone" -- 1994, 2004, 2014

* Alone here means without extended family ;-)
(I hope to edit this post later to include some photos. It was supposed to have been posted on Christmas Day)

I have no idea what Christmas 2024 will bring, my sons will be 20 & 22 and I most certainly want to spend Christmas with them, I wonder about the rest of the family, though. Will my parents still be around and healthy? Will we be with my in-laws?

K was joking that we need to be by ourselves to follow tradition and that it should be a good thing.

"We'll be in Fiji," he joked, "you and I, wouldn't that be nice?"

"Well, we will be celebrating our 30th anniversary, but no, I don't want to spend Christmas away from our sons!"

And then the boys began to talk about how old they will be that year, etc.

I don't like to think that far into the future, it's kind of scary! But looking back is fascinating and last night on Dec. 23rd K and I realized that ever since we became a couple, we've had Christmas "alone" precisely at 10 year intervals: in 1994 in a hotel room in our honeymoon; in 2004, our first Christmas as a family of four, by ourselves in a new city; and this year, alone again, just the four of us.

Needless to say, we're not used to that at all, but it felt very "right" and truly there was no place we'd rather be but home enjoying each other's company!

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It helps that we traveled on the 25th and saw very dear friends and family for six very intense day! More on that hopefully soon.