Embracing this Season and the Next

It snowed yesterday and there are no words in my vocabulary that I can use to express how happy I was.

I mean..come on, it's November, Indiana...stop it with the 70 degree weather...just stop.

ANYWAY.

It's almost Thanksgiving Break, which means food, rest, food, more rest, food, and decorating for Christmas. Can you guess which part I'm most excited about?

Hint: If you guessed anything other than decorating for Christmas, you're wrong.

Our family doesn't mess around with Christmas. If by the end of the season our tree is not drooping from sheer exhaustion from the amount of ornaments it has to hold up, we did something wrong.

But as I look forward to this holiday season, I'm hit with a mixture emotions: excitement, anticipation, joy, sadness, and anxiety.

Because I'm realizing something.

Things are changing.

This will be my last Thanksgiving as a Johnson.

This will be my last Christmas as a Johnson.

This will be my last time placing my ornaments on our family Christmas tree.

This will be the last year I am able to wake up with my siblings at 5am on Christmas morning.

Things are changing.

Next year, I will be a Curry.

I will spend my next Thanksgiving as a Curry.

I will spend my next Christmas as a Curry.

Next year, I will place my ornaments on a Christmas tree Andrew and I pick out.

Next year, I will wake up on Christmas morning with Andrew by my side (no promises I won't still wake up at 5am, though...sorry Andrew...).

Things are changing.

As a person who is deeply rooted and connected to my family, realizing this season of my life is ending is a little scary.

But then I think about the season I am about to enter.

It's exciting. It's unknown. It's new. It's change.

It's so, so good.

Even though I am mourning the season I am leaving behind, I am rejoicing in the season I am about to enter. It's a strange mixture, I know.

I take comfort, though, in the fact in the next season my relationships with my family will remain. They'll be different, yes, but will not diminish. Instead, they'll continue to grow and develop.

So yes, my name will change.

Traditions will change.

Who I call family will change.

But for now, I'm soaking it all in.

Every tradition.