#49 Home for the Holidays


It takes on a whole new meaning when “home for the holidays” means you at home in your own new home for whatever holidays you celebrate as the season sets in!  It could be your very first home, or it could be your “move up” home to accommodate a growing traditional family, a creative “expanded” family or any one of many contemporary family structures that grace a home together. 

It has been an exciting year, and when you look back over what you were able to accomplish, you have a lot of reasons to be excited and even a bit self-satisfied!  You started with the decision to work hard and to realize your dream of a new home – maybe your very first own home.

Your home is a gift that you give to yourself – and it’s a gift that will keep on giving! 

If you are a first time homebuyer, you are at the beginning of an almost magical path.   It starts with ownership itself, and travels forward, making its own unique way, developing its own patterns, customs and traditions.  Almost every adult fortunate enough to have grown up in their parents’ home can remember and could make a long list of what constituted “home” – what distinguished it from other places and how it had its own personality!

It’s your turn to begin the new stories of family happenings, happiness and sorrows, new, sweet babies, elders who carry your history as well as beloved pets, essential livestock – all the fables and foibles that bring a home alive.  Traditions are built slowly and carried forward – sometimes, “just because!”   As our younger generations move more enthusiastically into their own sense of culture – be it Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanza – they will infuse the celebrations with their own new perspectives and interesting nuances to older approaches. 

With a new home come many other new adventures!  New neighbors, new social connections, new territory to explore and other delights!  What better vehicle than the holidays for getting acquainted with your new surroundings?   If you have children, they have probably made new friends at school and opened the door for you to reach out to other parents.  Sharing some of your family traditions (children or not) is one way to open your door to new neighbors.  For instance, family recipes for holiday goodies come down the line from generation to generation and are great door openers for new friends!  It s wonderful how great food can break down the barriers of unfamiliarity!

Don’t forget those you left behind – it can be really hard for old neighbors and friends to adjust to your new adventure.  The holiday spirit provides the perfect avenue to keeping old connections warmly welcomed into your new environment.  Sometimes “moving” can be hard for children leaving playmates and classmates behind.  Given the chance, they will really like showing their old friends around their new surroundings!

Your new home may have been inspired by the need to bring an elderly parent into closer proximity and provide a safer daily life for their advancing years.  And, just because life is what it is, there may have arisen the unexpected need to have a modified environment for a family member confined to a wheelchair or with other forms of impaired mobility.  Such circumstances only add more love and satisfaction to your accomplishment.

In any and all cases, the new home you have achieved may be the biggest asset achievement so far in your life!  There’s every reason – Holiday season or not – to celebrate!   


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