This is my first Christmas away from home. While I haven’t lived with my parents for many years, this is the first time I’ve been more than an hour away from my family. It’s a little weird living in Chicago with snow on the ground while they are in California enjoying the warm winter sun and clear skies.

When I moved here in May, I assumed I would be going home for Christmas. But circumstances changed, and now I’m staying here for the holidays with Colin. Which means, of course, that we had to get our own tree and figure out our own traditions. This was my first year getting my own Christmas tree, having relied on my parents for years to get one. We got some lights, and a few basic glass ball ornaments to get the tree started until the ornaments from my childhood arrived in the mail from my parents.

The glass bulbs are nothing special, they’re just little things from Target. Space fillers for the ornaments I got when I was wee thing from my grandma before she passed. Most of which, I discovered, are cats.

I only have one ornament that isn’t an animal, and it’s a snowman. There are lots of other animals: penguins, bears, bunnies.

Which matches the stocking that Colin’s mom made for me.

But there are some things about my tree that make it very special. When we were in Venice, Colin and I picked up a Venetian mask ornament.

We have a few other ornaments that are from places we’ve visited together, or things we’ve done since we’ve been together.

But the thing that makes this holiday the most special, the most different from being at home? Snow.

I never understood the importance of snow and Christmas until I woke up to that on my way to work on Friday.