I’m falling back on another Holidailies prompt tonight: How is this December different from last year? (Actually, I think this is meant to be the prompt for December 7th, but I’m ahead of the game.)

Well, last year was the first year in a very long time that Jeremy and I didn’t spend Christmas with either my family or his (through no choice of our own, I might add). So one year ago, I was desperately trying to Christmasify my house in an attempt to make up for the fact that we would be stuck in Brighton over the holidays (though as I wrote in January, our Christmas “stuck” in Brighton wound up being really nice, complete with good friends, tons of food and many hours of poker).

This year is altogether different, because this year is all about family. This year, Jeremy and I will be spending Christmas with my family and with Jeremy’s mom; all of us are going to Arizona for two weeks of feasting and making merry. It’s the first time all of us will be together for Christmas, which is really exciting. It’s so exciting, in fact, that I’ve done absolutely nothing to make our flat Christmas-y this year because I know I have so much Christmas to look forward to in two weeks time.

So that’s the main difference between last December and this one. Other than that, I’m just as swamped with work right now as I was one year ago (there’s clearly something about the run-up to the holidays that makes everyone need translations right away), the weather is just as crummy, Brighton is just as un-Christmas-y, and I’m getting just as crafty in a probably futile attempt to make Christmas presents for people. December is December is December—but there’s something comforting about that.