December and 2021 are officially over, and I think I’m still processing how I feel about that. I started the year convinced the pandemic would finally be behind us, especially since we’d all be able to get vaccines. I also started the year pregnant, which seems so far away considering the energetic baby we have now. But before I try to process the year some more, or look forward to the next one, here’s one final Christmas post summary, mostly for my memory.
Big or small, here are the things we did to celebrate Christmas this year:
Decorated the house and the yard
ZooLights
Saw Santa
Got hot chocolate
Drove around and looked at Christmas lights
Made and smashed gingerbread houses
Ate candy canes from the tree
Family PJs
Sent Christmas cards and displayed ones we received
Made Christmas cookies
Watched Christmas movies
Of course there were things we meant to do that we didn’t get to, which is completely fine too. I don’t see this time of year as a checklist we need to accomplish, I see these all as possible options, depending on how much time we have or what else is going on. We all have priorities that will probably turn into MUST dos for a few years.. But we didn’t go to any Christmas tree lightings, or watch the Santa parade up close. We also meant to have the kids do some of their own Christmas shopping this year, but we ran out of time on that one. We ended up sort of fitting it in with a quick trip to a book store. Of course that got one of my favorite lines from Christmas: “Not a book! A book isn’t fun. Why did [brother] give me a book I don’t like??”
A friend told me about how she printed off pictures from Amazon and had her child pick out gifts for people that way, which I’ll file away for next year, because that certainly sounds easier! We also celebrated G’s birthday in the middle of all of this, which is so, so hard. We do make sure to take some time to celebrate in the summer each year, which makes me feel a bit better for how rushed his birthday is right before Christmas. The birthday tree made an appearance again this year, so at least he has that.
As for wrapping up Christmas - I’m not sure if it’s because we’re still getting used to life with three children, or because we’re still in weird parental leave limbo, or that I’m still trying to get back to me after being pregnant for so long, but I was totally done with Christmas almost as soon as the day was over. I don’t really remember when we usually take our decorations and trees down, but we barely made it two days before I was un-decorating. And I didn’t feel even a little guilty about it.
