Not long ago, I used to assemble a group of people to drive around and look at Christmas lights with.  Some years we’d need a mini van to fit us all and other years it would be a smaller group.  Sometimes I’d bring cookies, sometimes we’d pick up holiday drinks from Starbucks before heading out.  We’d see houses that were so done up you needed to get out of the car and really take it all in or houses that you’d show up to only to find the owners had already turned everything off for the night.  But no matter what, we would always have fun.

I guess I don’t really remember when or why we stopped this yearly tradition, but in a way that is VERY unlike me, I don’t remember being sad or upset about it ending.  This year, we sort of brought it back.  But like a very low maintenance version.  As in, it was just Joey and I, I spent all of 5 minutes looking up the best houses and more time was spent just driving through the surrounding neighborhoods than actually staying “on course.”

Our two favorite houses ended up being ones we just happened upon, go figure!  I took an Instagram video of the very best one and totally forgot to take an actual picture, unless you count this selfie of Joey and I looking like we’re about to audition for Wicked. 

This year’s impromptu outing suddenly jogged my memory and I had an “oh yeah, we used to do this all the time!” moment where I briefly thought back on all the other times I’d gone Christmas light looking.  But for once, I didn’t feel that anxious longing to bring back the tradition, and instead spent a happy minute remembering all those previous years before jumping back into the experience I was having right then.  Feels good to know I maybe am capable of having a healthy relationship with holiday traditions and actually can (and will) be okay letting them come and go as they please.

In other news, I’m going to see Christmas Vacation at a movie theater tonight and I’m sort of crazy excited about it.  Wishing you all a happy weekend!