New Family Holiday Traditions
We successfully traversed the country for a 3rd time in less than a year, landing in San Diego again. We planned on staying for a month, spending as much time with Aaron’s family as possible, because once we land for good it’ll probably be a minute before we can get back out to San Diego. So we scheduled as much time with cousins as possible. Aaron’s grandmother offered her home for us to stay in, and she went to go stay with Aaron’s dad, giving us the luxury of having a stable space to spread out in (and the best brother and sister let us keep our motorhome in their driveway, again). The best part of it though was that we got to spend solo time with her nearly everyday. She’d come over for a visit around lunch time and spend the time playing games and catching up with the kids. And she always would sit down and listen to the kids talk to her about. Whatever they were interested in, somehow garnering the interest in video game technicalities that I just can never muster.
Aaron enlisted his dad to help with some of the larger tasks on the RV, specifically installing the solar panels on the roof. Although there were lots of upgrades - new awnings, new skylight, and new fan covers - too much work on the roof for me. We had family haircuts again (there were needed even mores this time around), and we went all in, cutting the shortest they’ve ever been. We were even lucky enough to meet Grandma’s new puppy, Gracie, while she was still its bitty.
There are so many things that have been different about this year, but holiday season away from home was exceptionally different for someone like myself who really loves tradition. In light of everything being so different we just leaned into it really hard - Charlie Brown Christmas tree, borrowed decorations, cookies with extended family, planning to go to someone else’s house on Christmas. The children received a few gifts early - in particular a sewing machine gifted from Auntie Rufina. Amelia was so excited to receive this apparatus that she had been asking for for awhile now, and when Grandma J showed her how to competently operate it, in I way that I would never be able to do, she was off!
In the end taking a break from old traditions to make new ones was wonderfully refreshing, we were so lucky to be able to share these with our California Family.
