2018 will be the year I ... don't immediately reject change

2017, you saucy minx. Way to teach me an important life lesson with only days left in the year. Talk about a buzzer-beater.

I'm referring to Christmas this year, which was a messed up-clone version of the Christmases I'm used to. We had a good amount of changes this year. And I fought them as hard as I could until I just decided to give up and give in.

We didn't spend Christmas at my parents' home like we always do. Rather mom, dad, and I spent both Christmas Eve and Christmas night in hotel rooms. Like I said, I fought this. Who wants to spend Christmas in a hotel? Certainly not I. A hotel room isn't home. It's not my own bed. It's comfortable, but in a stuck up way. I wanted my bed, my messy room, my parents' home.

Instead we opted for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Connecticut, visiting my brother, sister-in-law, nieces and nephew. I wanted them to come to us, but with 1-year-old twins it just wasn't happening. 

We didn't even have a Christmas tree. No. Christmas. Tree. I was initially thinking one would be at my parents' house when I got there, but was tipped of days before by my mom. "Just so you know, there's no tree, but dad did still decorate the house."

It turns out you don't need a Christmas tree to have the best Christmas ever. You don't even need your own bed. All you need is people you love and who love you. (Shouldn't I have learned this by now in a Disney movie or something??)

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day laughing and genuinely enjoying our time with each other. We exchanged gifts and had the best time watching the kids open their presents. (My fake smartphone toy totally won with my nephew Malcolm who's obsessed with stealing everyone's real phone.) We had mimosas like we always (if those had been taken away, there'd be a REAL problem), and my sister cooked her tail off, making us dinner on Christmas Eve and breakfast on Christmas morning.

Later in the day, my parents and I left and went to Boston where we stayed overnight after going to the Celtics game at the Garden. We were staying in Chinatown, so after the game we went to dinner and had our first hot pot experience. I'm almost positive we did everything wrong, but we had a fabulous time doing it. Then we spent another night in a hotel -- a place that wasn't home, but felt like home thanks to the people I was with (another missed Disney movie lesson?).

This Christmas was one for the books. 

I remember talking to my mom on the phone weeks before, and I kept saying that it was going to be a different Christmas. I was trying to brace myself because different meant bad to me. Change meant bad. I'd rejected the change and then gave in and then found myself preparing for the worst.

Some change is bad. Some change is good. My goal in 2018 is to be open to finding out which is which before I immediately judge and shut down.