This year brought new meaning to going home for the holidays. A month after moving half way across the country, we loaded up the trusty Ford and ventured back to Nebraska to celebrate Christmas with family. Fifteen hours later, we were enjoying welcome home hugs and face to face conversations with loved ones.
In some ways it felt as though we had never left. Thirty days isn’t the longest that we’ve gone without seeing our families, and we’d made the trip all the way down south and back a couple other times in recent months. Besides, the past several weeks have been a blur, and still feel a bit surreal. Yet something about this homecoming was different. Knowing that these visits will be fewer and farther between going forward made us just that much more intentional about soaking up every moment we could. And for the first time in months there was no stress looming about where we were going to live, whether our offer on a house would be accepted, packing up all of our belongings, or coordinating moving logistics. It was a nice change of pace having the ability to just be present.
As a bonus, we woke up on Christmas Eve to perfectly falling snow, followed by a lingering frost that made for an incredibly picturesque white Christmas.
Our trip back was brief. In fact, the time we spent in the car about equaled our time at the farm. But it was well worth it because it’s true what they say – there really is no place like home for the holidays.
-m
