Christmas

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A tale of Two Christmases

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What do you focus on when it comes to Christmas? Do you walk away with rosy glasses on, remembering all the best moments and declaring it the best Christmas ever? Or do you focus on what went wrong, the disappointments and tears? Honestly, I kind of want to remember both. So here you have it, a tale of two Christmases:

The Good:

On Christmas Eve we exchanged sibling gifts, which gave them something to play with, but also caused them to get more excited about the random things they picked for each other (although they both ended up getting each other a paw patrol playset). We’d also had them pick out Christmas cards to give each other and Tom and I, which was a nice easy introduction into gifting presents to other people. It was pretty cute to see what cards they’d picked out thinking we’d like. We also spent a lot of time watching Christmas movies and cuddling on the couch.

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Let's Kick off Christmas

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As we do, we started the Christmas season off early this year. I used to have a strict, wait until after Thanksgiving rule, but it’s definitely been relaxed lately. We still don’t have any Christmas trees up, but there are wrapped presents in my house, decorations are ready to go up soon, and we’ve done a few holiday events already. Speaking of those, we’ve had some hits and misses.

One of the hits for me at least, was visiting Santa! The older two are always a bit confused about why we’re doing it, and claim they don’t want to go, but I swear they have a lot of fun once we’re there. E jumped right in on signing his name to the “nice list” book they had, and then did G’s name too while G was warming up to everything. But soon they were both chatting with Santa, posing for pictures, and of course telling their life stories.

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A Wrap on Christmas

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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:

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Merry Christmas!

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Well we did it. 2020 is coming to a close, Christmas is here, and I feel like I’m at the end of a marathon. I’m excited to be taking some time off of work, for staying in my PJs and watching the kids go nuts over their presents. They definitely get what’s happening this year, have been diligently counting down on their advent calendars every day, and becoming crazier and crazier as each day passes.

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A Christmas Tradition

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There are a lot of things we’ve lost this year. A lot of traditions broken. Our annual family trip to Maine was cancelled. Birthday parties, get togethers, even the Boston Marathon is going to miss two years. So when I started thinking about what Christmas was going to look like this year, there was one thing I didn’t want to give up. Sure it’s not the most important tradition, and I’m sure the kids wouldn’t have noticed, but I realized it would make me feel a little bit better if this one wasn’t broken.

And honestly anything I can do to feel a little bit normal these days, I’ll take it. My coping strategy with this pandemic seems to be part good enough and part humor. So that’s what led me to order Tom a Santa suit back in September.

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Our Christmas Day

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We don’t really have a “normal” Christmas yet. We have ideas of how we’d like things to go, but so far we’ve had a first Christmas with a 6 month old who had no idea what was going on, a Christmas where half our family woke up in the hospital, and this one. So we played it a bit by ear. We still had one kid who was utterly confused about what was special about this day, but E was starting to get it.

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Holiday Cards

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By now they’ve all been sent out, and if you’re on our list, you’ve probably received ours. (And if not, let me know!) Yes, they were early - although that’s not unusual for me. As with everything this year, though, it either needs to be early or not at all. Just be glad I waited until after Thanksgiving to mail them out, because trust me they were ready before that!

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Merry Christmas

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I hope everyone is having a quiet and relaxing weekend, and enjoying whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year.

Tom and I and the Bubba are home, just the three of us, building our own holiday traditions.  It's amazing to witness everything through this little one's eyes, and think about the years we have ahead of us.  Mornings like this. 

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Our Home, Christmafied

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I've pretty much always been this crazy, but all of a sudden I'm getting some wicked encouragement.  Not only has Tom proclaimed multiple times that THIS is why he married me, but E certainly seems to appreciate it as well.  Which only has me dreaming about what else I can decorate in this house, and how to add more lights to the outside of our house without buying a 40' ladder. 

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Missing in Action

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Phew!

So I've been MIA for a bit huh? Where did December go? 

Well first we hosted a mini Colgate reunion.  One great thing about Christmas is that people who live far away come home for a few weeks and give us a chance to hang out.  Then there were more Christmas parties, and a trivia competitions (winning team over here! woot!), and we even found some time to take in Penny for service!

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Christmas Cookies

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Every once in a while, I see something on the internet and decide that I must immediately recreate it.  This weekend was one of those times.  

I've been wanting to make some sort of Christmas cookies for a while, but the thing is, I don't really have a favorite Christmas cookie.  Sure, there are ones that I enjoy, and ones that I used to make when I was little, but none of them were reaching out to me as the ones I NEEDED to make this year.  So I waited. 

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Christmas Tree: 2016 Edition

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So I've completely succeeded in convincing Tom that we should cut down a Christmas tree every year.  Unfortunately Massachusetts has been in a severe drought most of the year (remember our beautiful lawn?), which has impacted the local Christmas tree crop.  Apparently this is a serious issue that is going to impact our local Christmas trees for years to come... Most of the available trees around have been trucked in from other states, and all the trees at the cut your own places were small and half dead.

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Merry Christmas!

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Technically Christmas Eve, but close enough!  I hope wherever you are, you're taking some time to enjoy the holiday, pretty lights, and a warm drink.  I'll be heading up the road to Jake and Jill's for their annual Christmas Eve party and then heading home to go to bed early for Santa!

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Candy Cane Memories

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Every year I'd look for it, and every year it was there.  Maybe not on the first box I picked up, but eventually I'd find the correct one.  And there it was, tied to the ribbon around the box.  Not just any type of ribbon either - she always used the puffy, yarn-like, braided ribbon, usually in red, green or white.  No thin curling ribbon here.  Sometimes I could free it myself, other times I needed the help of scissors.  And then off it would go to my mom for safe keeping, while I tore open the packages to see what was inside.  Although at the time it was never the gift itself, always treated as more of a decoration of sorts, it's the only thing I've kept and enjoyed year after year.