Over and over again, I need to remind myself to let go of expectations.  Not just unrealistic ones but expectations altogether.  Last year we made a village of ginerbread houses complete with snowmen villagers.  It was goofy and fun and beautiful. This year, I thought I was going to do the same thing.  A friend mentioned that she wasn't going to do gingerbread houses and so I decided that if we could swing it, I would have a party with her kids and we would build some together. She wouldn't have to do the work and we could visit and while our teen kids decorated and chatted and goofed off.  I pulled out my recipes, got to work with the templates and baked.  I laid out the table with frosting, candies, and gingerbread templates.  We gathered and built, talked and laughed and when we were done, there were 5 completed gingerbread houses and that is all the farther I got on our village.  My sugar plum fairy ideas ended with the party.  I just couldn't pull together another baking session and so our two houses joined the graham cracker houses I had built for a photo shoot and that was that.  I am OK with that because I am learning to let go.  Christmas is Christmas without a gingerbread and snowman village.  It is Christmas without piles and piles of cookies.  It is still Christmas without snow or really anything else.  Christmas has a whole different meaning and the fluff is nice but that is all it is.  Still learning and the party was worth it.  It was all about the people involved; that these teens still were willing to sit around a table and work with frosting, candy, and houses. That was the gift for me.