Christmas: Presence Not Presents!!

Happy Boxing Day Steemians!!

This Christmas would be the first time, we had gone to a mall to check out the deco. Over the years, many friends would make it a mission to go from mall to mall, taking pictures but somehow it never tweaked my interest. The idea of braving the crowd with 4 kids in tow was always daunting. The kids are bigger now, and with Christmas day free of any plans, off we went.

You see, all our Christmases, as long as I can remember were us celebrating with family, or a low-key holiday somewhere celebrating with family. Mum had always seen Christmas as a time for family to iron out their differences, in the hopes that the non-talking ones would be friends/family again. Her kids have mixed sentiments on religion but we tried to make her happy, sometimes with disastrous outcomes that made things worse. Bless her soul.

But in all of this, I realised she was never big on presents. I don't think she ever really gave us Christmas presents. She gave us things that we needed and even wanted all year round. But she never subscribed to buying presents just because it was Christmas. For her it was all about presence, about being there for each other.

So this year, the first year without her, we will continue with the tradition of spending time together (but with the family we choose to be with.... sorry Mum). Because of flight issues, my brother and his family will arrive in a couple of days and then off we go for a mini getaway to Mum's birth place. So til that happens the 6 of us made it to the malls to see if the deco would make us feel better about missing Mum's physical presence. Love you Mum <3