I have to admit I was kind of bummed about not being able to spend Christmas at my own house in Greencastle.

It used to be, when we lived up north, we were the halfway point between my family in Michigan and my husband's in Fort Wayne, so everyone came to our place. We did that for a lot of years, and I really took a liking to not having to travel on Christmas.

Since we moved further south this year, obviously everyone wasn't going to haul their cookies to Greencastle. So we all decided Fort Wayne made the most sense, since my husband's family consists of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, and my family is my mom and stepfather.

The thing that bothered me the most about not being home on Christmas was that we were going to miss the Christmas Eve service at our church, Gobin United Methodist. Since Andy and I have been married, we have always attended services at our home church on Christmas Eve. We decided we would go to church in Fort Wayne with Andy's maternal grandmother, uncle and cousins on Christmas Eve. For the first time in 10 Christmases, we were going to have to spend the night before Christmas in an unfamiliar church surrounded by people we didn't know.

I shouldn't have fretted so much. As is His usual way, God knew exactly where I was supposed to be on Christmas Eve. He knew I needed to hear the Christmas Eve message at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church.

The message was all about how we build up these expectations, especially around the holidays, that are impossible to achieve. We want everything perfect, we want it the way we want it and when we want it.

Life never works that way. Why do we always think that's going to change around the holidays? Why do we set ourselves up for the disappointment?

I listened to the pastor ... a pastor I'd never met before ... talk about how we concentrate so much on what we don't have that we take what we do have for granted and don't appreciate it like we should (for many people seated around us, this meant electricity ... much of the city of Fort Wayne, including our relatives, was without power for several days prior to Christmas Eve, the result of an ice storm).

The pastor's words touched my heart. I began thinking about how I had envisioned my adult life when I was a little girl and a teenager. I didn't want to get married. I didn't want to have children. I was going to be a stage actress, possibly take a television role here and there. I was never going to live in one place for very long until I retired. When that happened, I was going to split my time between retirement homes in New York City and Los Angeles, and I would live off acting royalties and money from the sale of my memoirs, which I would write in my old age.

Yeah, not so much.

The first curve ball God threw at me was my daughter, who I had when I was 20. I was a single parent to her for a long time, which meant I had to work ... steadily. Although I continued with my college studies and earned a degree in theater, I minored in English and parlayed that into a career in newspaper journalism.

Being a mom meant the acting thing, always a foregone conclusion in my mind, was out the window.

When Dani was 8, I began dating Andy. I married him 18 months later, which, according to my carefully mapped out life plan, was never supposed to happen. So here I was, 31 years old, and I had a child, a husband, a steady job in one place and a home.

Then came Will in 2002. My life plan was crumbling. Crumbling! I was never going to do those things I'd dreamed of.

In the spring of 2007, I left a newspaper job I'd been at for 10 years and tried my hand as an assistant editor in Crawfordsville. A few months later, I connected with the Banner Graphic, and, with my husband and family behind me, I became an editor ... a position of responsibility I never thought about before.

Again, I knew those childhood dreams were slipping further and further away. I was nearing 40. This was my life.

Sometimes I got depressed about it.

But as I sat in that church in Fort Wayne on Christmas Eve, I realized that God sent me on the path I was supposed to take. I can't imagine my life without Andy or my kids. When I get old, they are going to be there with me.

Sure, my life may have been a whole lot more glamorous for a while had I done what I originally wanted to, but eventually I would have likely ended up very lonely.

And my job ... as difficult and challenging as is it some days, I am so glad I never settled and kept pushing onward in my career to get to this point. Being a journalist is a never ending learning curve, and I love it. I can't imagine doing anything else. I have met phenomenal people at the Banner ... I have managers who believe in me, support me and want to help me grow as an editor and journalist, which is something I've never had before. I have co-workers who like and appreciate me, and who I like and appreciate back.

Professionally, I've never been happier.

This town my family and I have lived in since June is truly becoming our home. We love our church, and we're slowly but surely making friends. Our son is doing great in school; he is flourishing under the tutelage of the staff at Deer Meadow Elementary. He loves his after school program at Area 30.

Yes, life takes unexpected turns. But if you look around, I'll bet you'll realize, like I did, that what you always wanted wasn't what you needed at all.

As the pastor at Good Shepherd said, the only thing you can really expect is that God is going to keep surprising you.

And how.

Happy holidays, and may your new year be filled with luck, love and happiness ... no matter what surprises come your way.