Breaking in the New House

Parking in the driveway was something new this year. It was December the 24th, Christmas Eve, and I was coming to my parents new house. I walked in with multiple luggage in hands and a plate of homemade snickerdoodles (one of my favorites) and trying to figure out where to go to put everything down.

To say coming to a new house, and a new area for Christmas was strange would be wrong. It was strange. The room I was in wasn't mine, the bed I was in wasn't mine, the layout of now the tiny house wasn't mine. How unfamiliar everything was. Yes, the stuff was my parents. I recognized the decorations, some of the furniture and of course my parents, but everything else was new. I didn't know where everything was. For example where were the cups? Here I am thirsty after the long travel I didn't even know where to get a cup. I had to have my mom get it for me as i stood there like a helpless child unsure what to do or where to go.

I noticed how the decorations were placed in different areas. In fact everything was. Everything was rearranged and although I knew it all, I still felt lost. All I wanted was to be back in my house in little ole Calimesa. The house where I knew where everything was. The green trash can in the laundry room, the silverware by the stove, and the little shepherd lamb by the fireplace and the couch.....well existing. Apparently they were waiting for their new couch to be delivered.

Yep new couch, new bookshelves, new cabinets, new entertainment center where was I? Where did they bring me? This is my house. This is fake an impostor to my world. And yet here is where I must stay for this holiday season. Oh the constant change that comes with life.

At first it was weird, especially as we sat down for dinner and what a dinner it was. We never had such a cultural Christmas Eve dinner before. But times were changing and there were only 3 of kids for that night. And as my mom brought out new silverware and dishes and such I was informed that they had all this stuff from their wedding but never used it! The running joke, was anything new must have been from their wedding.

But as we talked and laughed and made jokes, I realized that even if this wasn't my house, it was my home. My parents, my sister and brother. They were my home. It wasn't the stuff it was the people. And even if it was better that the other siblings couldn't come due to space, it was as it should be; family enjoying each others company and having fun, coming together to celebrate Christ's birth into this world and thanking Him for all that He gave to us. So even though the house, the neighbors, the simple fact that we actually park the car in the garage is new and different, it's still full of the one thing that is constant in my life, the love of my family.