A strange Christmas this year.....

Dear All,

well here I am at last: up in the mountains, the Swiss Alps, with my parents. After a hectic end of the year like all of you I am sure, I finally get to rest and relax.
This year is a very special and strange Christmas for us. Indeed it is the first time in pretty much my whole life that it's just the 3 of us. But you know what, life just happens and sometimes, or really most of the time, we should just take it as it comes, make the best of it, surf the wave and not fight it.
Personally I think it's a very good thing. Usually it's my brother, my 2 aunts, my uncle, my 2 cousins, and my grandfather and his girlfriend. Well not this year. This year is special because in June my grandfather passed away 1 week before his 90th birthday. But don't worry, personally I am not sad because I know he was so fortunate to have a long and healthy life and he left pretty peacefully and quickly. But it's interesting to see how such an event has changed all of our lives in the family and our traditions in a way too. Without talking about it, we all went about our way of doing our own thing this year for Christmas. My brother took off for his long awaited 1 year-long trip around-the-world with his girlfriend (follow them on http://www.discoveringpachamama.com/), my aunt and cousins happen to have a wedding in Israël TODAY, and my other aunt is just doing her own thing with her in-laws. So here I am with my parents having the most relaxed and stressfree Christmas ever probably in my life. No rushing through the malls this year for gifts, no fancy crazy cooking (although it doesn't mean we're not eating like kings as my mom is THE most amazing cook in the whole world!) and the best part: no fancy dress-up this year! hahaha I am soooooooo enjoying just being in my joggings. ; )
But the message I want to convey with this first real blog post is that I'm not saying I don't like all those parts of Christmas. Quite the opposite actually. People who know me know how much I love Christmas and go all out about it. But it's nice for once to have a break from it and to enjoy simply being with my parents and sharing a cozy atmosphere with delicious food, champagne! (you'll learn in the future that I'm not an alcohol drinker but I do love champagne!) and taking a nap before desert was served! What a luxury! ;)
My cousin called at midnight when we usually open up the presents. She was all emotional. It is a strange Christmas but I'm making the most of it because I know that next year we will all be together again and we will start new traditions and carry on the ones we loved sharing with my grandfather because after all, for all of us, what truly matters is Family and having the opportunity to be together during this special time of year. Since we all live in different parts of Europe it's pretty much the only time of the year when we actually get to see each other all together, except at sad events like my grandfather's funeral. And we definitely intend on not making sad events our only opportunity to be together!
Therefore I would like to extend to all of you my very best wishes for this Christmas. I hope that you are enjoying it no matter where you are, with whom you are, and no matter what you are doing, and that if yours is strange also like mine this year, you know each year is different and that the most important is to just live in the moment.

And do feel free to share your Christmas here with us. I would love to hear from you! What is special for you in Christmas or what is different about it?

Look for my next post coming up this week on Gratitude. I hope you will enjoy it.

Best to you and keep the energy flowing! Well right now I'm actually resting to recharge it. hahaha ; ) Maybe that's what we all kind of need to do at last at this time of year. I'm off for a nap!
Take care,
Kim
And follow me on Twitter (@MyKimsChi), Pinterest and Facebook (Kim's Chi) in particular for other little hints and winks.