Home For the Holidays - Tracy Krauss

I've always loved Christmas and everything the season brings. Once I became a Christian, the holiday became even better as I focused more on the miracle of Jesus' birth. However, Christmas was also a very busy time. My husband and I are both the babies of large families, so for many years we never spent Christmas at home, even once we were married and had children. We always stayed at my husband's sister's house from Christmas Eve through Boxing day and went to one of my siblings for New Year. We were the ones who had "moved away", so it was always up to us to travel to be with family. It was usually a two-week extravaganza of living out of suitcases and carting gifts from place to place. Fun but exhausting.

That changed in 1995 when we moved to B.C. from Saskatchewan. We had lived far away before and had made the trip, but this time it was different. A two-day journey in the dead of winter with four children just didn't seem feasible, especially when my husband didn't get that many days off and we couldn't afford to fly.

As it turns out, that first Christmas "alone" became a pivotal point in our lives. Even though we loved and missed our extended family, it was so wonderful to wake up on Christmas morning and be able to revel in our children's delight without all the rest of the frenzy that normally went with it. It was cozy and intimate. Reverent, almost. We could focus on the faith aspect of the season and start our own traditions. It was also the year my husband bought a puppy for Christmas - a beautiful malamute/wolf cross that grew to be a beloved member of the family. (And grew and GREW!)

That was more than twenty-seven years ago. In that time I only traveled back to Saskatchewan once for Christmas when my husband was working away and all my children but one were elsewhere. (That's what happens when they grow up and get married.) That year, in 2008, we had just moved to Tumbler Ridge, so my son and I flew to Regina. For several years after that, various children came to our house in TR for the holidays, bringing their little ones.

And then... the cycle continued. 

My daughters expressed how they wanted to start their own family traditions in their own homes, especially on Christmas morning. So, after twenty-odd years of hosting my immediate family for Christmas, I relinquished the reins, (graciously, I hope!) and now get invited to one of their homes for the holidays. We had come full circle. 

I remembered how my own mom had done this same thing way back when I was still a teen. My older siblings had started their own families by then and so we usually went to one of their homes for Christmas. My mom was very gracious like that. She didn't fuss or expect people should come to her. She realized, for a variety of reasons, it was easier and better if we went to them. 

And so it goes. I am grateful to live fairly close to all my children. (Within a two-hour radius.) Depending on the year, we've driven somewhere either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but mostly I enjoy staying close to home and visiting after the frenzy has taken place. 

Since that pivotal Christmas in 1995, Jesus has been and remains the centerpiece of our holiday, not just an add-on. I look back at the days of "hoopla" with fond memories, but wouldn't change our stay-at-home Christmases for anything. 

Tracy Krauss enjoys Christmas and writing in beautiful Tumbler Ridge, BC, where she lives with her sweetheart of forty years.