Okay, so perhaps the holidays weren't quite what I had planned. Cold...gray...rainy...ick! Yeah, this is why we always go to Hawaii (or somewhere else warm and sunny). AJ doesn't even remember a Christmas spent at home, it's been that long. I really miss sitting on a beach, reading a book, listening to the ocean! Granted, it usually comes with arguments about who's running back to the room for drink refills or to make lunch, but nothing too life threatening. Yes, still bitter, but trying to make the best of it.
Was feeling pretty good this weekend, as was expected, so it was a baking filled weekend. Actually, my daughter did the baking, my job was simply to find her recipes to test. She was a busy beaver: hot chocolate cupcakes (which everyone who ate one is sure she can market), reindeer cupcakes, and some root beer float fudge. Luckily, we were sharing much of this with friends and neighbors because we also had baked goods being dropped off at the house.
Christmas Eve we received a dinner invitation to spend the evening with some friends. Yummy food, totally relaxing, and I actually managed to stay up past 10pm without a nap during the day. Might be the first day in a long time that I did not have a nap.
Christmas Day was spent much different than the usual day on the beach. Luckily, we kept the girl child up late enough that she did not get up at the crack of dawn, so everyone got to sleep in just a little. We went to spend the afternoon with family from far and wide, reminding me of the Thanksgivings of my childhood. Good to see everyone, especially my grandpa. Had to be a quick afternoon though so that we could come back to my parents' for Christmas dinner and Santa presents before I passed out.
No luck. I fell asleep as soon as we got back to my parents (keep in mind, these 2 locations were about an hour apart, so we'd been gone for most of the day) and missed Christmas dinner. Thankfully, no one was surprised by this and actually let me sleep. I don't even know how long I was out for the count. But my daughter made sure to make enough noise for present opening that I did wake up.
Overall a fun holiday. Relaxing, obviously since there were naps involved. Thankful for everyone that made it fun. And thankful that everyone was understanding about: no grownup got a present from us this year. And if it couldn't be purchased from Amazon and/or a gift card, kids in the family weren't getting it either. The annual calendar? Nope...it would've required several things: actual pictures to put in it (haven't been a happy picture taking family these past few months), and a trip to Costco to pick them up (which required too much energy). The annual Christmas letter, which many have come to know and love? I still wrote it...but just couldn't print/fold/stamp/address. So every received either via email or a Facebook post. Actually, I'm posting it on this blog tomorrow, so everyone can read it!
Life doesn't always take you where you want to go, but the journey isn't always so bad...
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