It should come as no surprise that I have been thinking about Christmas lately.  It would be more shocking if I wasn't, I think ... 

I lived in the same house from the time I came home from the hospital until I was almost 9, when we moved to a house in the same school district, but a newer neighbourhood.  I didn't leave that house until I moved in with my boyfriend (and future ex-husband) when I was almost 23.  Together we lived in that first apartment for about 4 years, and in our condo for another 4 1/2 years, when we split up in September 2005.  (I bet you are thinking "sweet baby jebus in the manger, get to the part about Christmas, please, before I fall asleep in my eggnog!".  Not to worry ... I have a point.)

What occurred to me today was that I have not spent Christmas in the same apartment/house two years in a row since 2004.  Given the stability that I had becomed so accustomed to, you can see why this is cause for pause and consideration!  I am dearly hoping that even though my new apartment is not the place I plan to live out my days in, I can be here for at least a few years and feel like I am home, not just "at my apartment".

I put up my little tree today (that isn't the same one as I used to have), with new decorations and new-as-of-last-year lights in my new little apartment while the new dog sniffed around and generally made a nuisance of herself.  

But for all that changes, some things stay the same.  

Almost before I was finished, Pixel was under the tree and lying down on the tree skirt, the same as she has done every single year since I adopted her in 2003.  It made me happy to have that little bit of the expected, when I least expected it.  I smiled as I watched her curl up and have a nap.  I turned off all the lights in the apartment and just enjoyed the twinkle of the tree and my sleepy, purry, furry, pudgy cat.  And then the hound make me laugh and the moment was over, but that was ok because I knew that there will be more.   

There are a sad little 10 decorations (plus the lights) on my little tree.  I am resisting the urge to go out and buy more to fill it all up and make it all pretty because I want to have ornaments that mean something to me ... so that next year, when I look at my little tree, I will remember where that 11th ornament came from.  I want to make new traditions, even if I am the only one that marks them or enjoys them.