Hard to believe that it's already December. 2010 is just about gone (and still no flying cars or jetpacks, but that's another story!) and we are starting to get ready for the holidays. It'll be the last Christmas with my daughter as a full-time resident of our home and it feels weird, and a little more depressing in some ways than the holidays can usually be. Yeah, she'll continue to come home for the holidays, from college or grad school or whatever, at least until she puts down roots of her own. But once you head out to college, things are never quite the same. They weren't for me. "Home" slowly devolves into the house where you grew up, as your new sensibility of "home" becomes where you are now. The loss of the day-to-day experiences of just living in a place make that change inevitable.
But until then, I soldier on. The exterior of the house is decorated already, with lights on the shrubbery, garlands on the porch and a wreath welcoming folks at our door. Red bows and green swathes and candles in the windows to let the neighbors know how festive we are. Soon the tree will go up and gifts will start to appear underneath it. I plan to savor every second, atheist or not -- I'm always up for a good solstice celebration. Yet I can't deny the underlying tinge of sadness that always accompanies something ending.
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