My Home for the Holidays Survey

"My Home for the Holidays Survey" Questions:

1.  Who do you want to go home to visit? or Who do you want to come home to visit you? Why?

For Christmas, I want to go home to visit my family and friends in West Virginia.  This includes not just my mom and dad and sister but my extended family too - grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, step-children.  Why?  Well, I live nine hours away from West Virginia and only get to go home three times a year - once at Easter, once in the summer, and once at Christmas.  I was raised being totally devoted to my family and having them in my life all the time, so being so far away and getting to see them so rarely has been the hardest part of living here in South Carolina.  I hate it that my two children don't get to have their extended family close by.

2.  What is your relationship with this person? How long have you known them?

Well, my "person" includes my entire family - parents, sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends - so I've known them forever.  They've all been a big part of my life since I was born.  I don't know another family that is as closely knit as my own, right down to the aunts and uncles and cousins. 

3.  When was the last time you spent the holidays with this person?

Well, I spent last Christmas with them, so it would have been December of 2008.  That would be the last holidays that I spent with them.  My last visit to see them all was in July of this year - 2009 - which was three months ago.  By the time December rolls around it will have been nearly six months since I was able to see my family.  Life is too short, and that is too long.

4.  What is your most meaningful holiday memory with this person?

Oh my goodness, there are so many that it's hard to choose only one!  I guess the most meaningful ones would simply be the memory of the entire family sitting around together in the living room laughing, talking, teasing, joking, and just enjoying one another's company - the tradition of it.  Christmas eve was always spent at my dad's grandparents' house.  All my aunts and uncles and my grandparents would gather there.  This would have been in my early years (before I turned 7), and I clearly remember just the family being together.  The closeness.  The joy.  The laughs.  Christmas day was spent at my house with my mom and dad and my sister.  My sister and I would jump up out of bed, wearing our jammies, and wake up mom and dad, often before the sun even came up.  There was no going back to sleep!  Every year they'd tell us a specific gift to get from under the tree and bring to the bed where we got to open only that one.  After that we had to eat breakfast before anything else was opened.  What a way to torture your children!!  After our presents were opened we'd all leisurely get ready to make the nearly two hour trip to my grandparents' house (my mom's parents) where there was more laughing and joking and fun.  Seven adult couples and 18 grandchildren would all pile into Grandma's and Grandpa's house (5 more have been added to this number now that some of us cousins have gotten married and had children), and there's always so much happiness and laughing, joy and love that I'm surprised that small house can hold it all.  There's not another family like mine in the world, and I'm grateful each day of my life to be a part of it, and it's the feelings I have when I'm with that family on Christmas that I find the most memorable.

5.  How do you find meaning in the holidays?

For me, the holidays are all about family.  I love getting to spend time with everyone.  My family is the most important thing to me, and I love them all so much.  I love our family bond, and I'm proud to be a part of the family.  There are far too many people out there who don't have the loving, caring, special closeness that I get to share with my family.  I always try to be aware of this, but there's a special feeling during the holidays that really makes me grateful for family in my life.  I may live far away;  I may not to get to come home often; I certainly don't get to see everyone as much as I'd like; but I know that they're there whenever I need them, and I know that when I'm with them I'm at my happiest.  It's not the gifts that provide the meaning during the holidays.  It's not the lights on the house.  It's not the tree inside.  It's the people sitting around the room; the fact that no one knows me better, and I can truly be myself.  That's how I find meaning - my family.

Click on the photos to see more info about each photo and how it ties in, not only with this post, but my ideas and memories of Christmas.

Click here to see about doing your own "Home for the Holidays" survey for a chance to get back home yourself this holiday season.