{"id":5576,"date":"2019-12-23T16:10:47","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T00:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=5576"},"modified":"2019-12-23T16:10:47","modified_gmt":"2019-12-24T00:10:47","slug":"changing-and-rearranging-victoria-bc-12-23-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=5576","title":{"rendered":"Changing and Rearranging \u2013 Victoria, BC \u2013 [12\/23\/2019]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"My world is changing and rearranging
\nDoes that mean Christmas changes too?
\n~ How the Grinch Stole Christmas<\/em><\/p>\n

I am a big big<\/em> Christmas person. I always have been. Christmas, to me, is not about the gifts (though who doesn\u2019t like getting presents), it\u2019s about\u2026everything else. The tree, the lights, the smell of baking cookies\u2026it\u2019s about, family, and people<\/em>, and\u2026reminding yourself that \u2013 even when things are at their most tragically complicated -there is still good in the world.<\/p>\n

This Christmas though\u2026this Christmas is\u2026well, I\u2019ve had a bit of a harder time keeping sight of that.<\/p>\n

For all the joy this year has brought me, there has been a lot of emotional upheaval as well. My family is close; it\u2019s always been just the three of us. Christmas? Christmas has always been even more<\/em> just the three of us than any other time of year. 35 years worth of traditions and Christmas records and\u2026it\u2019s always been this way. It\u2019s always always<\/em> been this way. Even when I was away on ships, it was still\u2026always this way.<\/p>\n

And then I got married, and suddenly “it’s always been this way”…wasn’t.<\/p>\n

Now, don\u2019t get me wrong, I am thrilled<\/em> to be married!! Despite the hiccups brought about by circumstances out of our control (::ahem:: I\u2019m lookin\u2019 at you red tape and legalities!), we are really happy and life is settling slowly into place. We are adjusting to each other\u2019s quirks and oddities and learning new things about each other every day. We\u2019re facing our challenges head on and embracing our triumphs as a unit, and that\u2019s fantastic<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We have an adorable tree and scented candles and I have my very own Christmas Eve scroll. This afternoon I sat and sifted through my Gran\u2019s recipe book in search of the family sugar cookie recipe (which I couldn\u2019t find so I had to cheat with a recipe from online). We are learning each other\u2019s traditions and figuring out how to build and blend our own and\u2026that\u2019s how it\u2019s supposed to be.<\/p>\n

But getting married means that \u2026now we are two. And now \u2026we are four. Where there has always been three, there are now two separate \u2013 but intricately connected \u2013 pairs. And as it turns out ,building our own traditions is both amazing and a little bit intimidating. Where do you start? What do you keep? What do you move on from? How do I keep my heart from breaking just a little when everything does<\/em> change? How do I find the balance between taking joy in what is and feeling sorrow for what has been (potentially) left behind?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing; and in reality it\u2019s just a new adventure. It\u2019s just proving a little more difficult than any of us involved expected.<\/p>\n

But the important thing is that I\u2019m home. That we are all<\/em> home. All the people I care about are in one place, and while things aren\u2019t the way they have always been, they are changing into something that\u2019s equally as beautiful.<\/p>\n

And this afternoon, when I was standing in the kitchen with flour on my apron and my hands sticky with cookie dough, and the King’s Singers Christmas album playing…I finally got just the glimmer, the reassurance that yes, things change, but that doesn’t mean they go away.<\/p>\n

And under it all, at the heart of it, I am still just sitting here\u2026looking at the Christmas lights\u2026and enjoying my oranges.<\/p>\n

Because it will come, one way or another, without packages, boxes or bags\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My world is changing and rearranging Does that mean Christmas changes too? ~ How the Grinch Stole Christmas I am a big big Christmas person. I always have been. Christmas, to me, is not about the gifts (though who doesn\u2019t … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,17,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-reflections-below-the-waterline","category-sadie"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-1rW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5578,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576\/revisions\/5578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}