Homeschooling From the Heart

A Hope-Filled Christmas

Despite the festive, signature red and green of the season, I was blue--navy blue from head to toe.

It was my first Christmas as a newlywed and my first Christmas away from home.
 
Not that we were spending the holiday completely apart from loved ones. My husband's family was driving 11 hours so that we could all be together. But it simply wasn't my family. Life was just too expensive for us to travel coast-to-coast to spend the holiday at my house. So there would be no late night wrapping marathon with my mom, no curling up with my siblings while Dad read the Christmas stories, and no helping the little ones open their gifts and play with new toys.

How could I celebrate Christmas without them?

I never expected to ask myself that question. My family always focused on Jesus as "the reason for the season," manger scenes figured prominently in our Christmas décor, and we read the story of Christ's birth every year. But here I was feeling it just wouldn't be Christmas without my family.
 
Why was I really celebrating Christmas?
 
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