I must admit I’m feeling a bit melancholy now that Christmas is over. Perhaps it was the mid-week occurrence or the late Thanksgiving this year, but it just doesn’t seem like it should be over yet.
I am very grateful for some time off work to celebrate with friends and family, but I can’t help but feel that familiar let down now that the season and year are coming to an end. It all just flew by so fast! One minute Mariah is telling me I’m all she wants for Christmas for the 75th time, the next I’m surrounded by piles of boxes ready for the recycling bin.
Wah. Wah. Wah.
It could be that we typically plan a ski trip between Christmas and New Years, but this year our schedule just didn’t work out. Note to self: plan a vacation after Christmas next year to avoid the post-Christmas lull.
So instead of living in the lack of Christmas present, let’s reflect on the recent Christmas past, shall we?
In the last week, we cheered on the Illini to a win over Mizzou in the annual Braggin’ Rights game:
Best friends were made, vans were tested for capacity limits and cousins were reunited on a cold and rainy Saturday in St. Louis.
On Monday, we shopped:
I had the pleasure of hanging with one of my nephews earlier this week where we were tasked with completing other family member’s last minute shopping. Since running errands doesn’t exactly thrill most 7 (or 29) year-olds I decided to turn the day into a scavenger hunt.
We started at Target, an oh-so familiar location for my nephew, where I picked up a few items and got a lesson on the difference between regular and SWAP Force Skylanders. Once we were ready to check out, the clue for our next location was given.
Within a few hours, we had 5 stops under our belt and were ready for lunch. We hit up local favorite McCormicks, where Owen drew in some a la carte clues to signify our trip to back to Target and the chocolate chip cookie we were having for dessert.
Our final clue took us to the movies to see Frozen. To fit with the theme, we bought an ICEE that cost us as much as our ticket and giggled our way through the afternoon. Frozen was a super cute movie. Funny jokes for kids and adults alike and minimal scary parts. I say that because I only had to remind O once that I wouldn’t dare let a Disney princess die on my watch. We agreed that Olaf was our favorite, followed closely by Sven the reindeer who reminded us of another big goofy animal we both know well.
The rest of the time, we baked:
My mom and I share the habit of continuous baking. It’s a blessing really. As the holiday drew near, we alternated use of the oven to bake batch after batch of holiday treats, well-knowing we had more than enough to go around. Scones, muffins, cookies, quiche, cookies and more cookies. Even the boys got in on the fun by icing a few of my leftover sugar cookies. My favorite was the green present on the right that J layered with surprise sprinkles.
When Christmas Eve finally rolled around, we headed to mass and then home for dinner and presents.
We traditionally change into pajamas for this portion of the evening, but Jake introduced a new wear your Halloween costume element to this year’s festivities. Who doesn’t love to watch Captain America open Christmas presents?
As usual, we all ate too many sweets, got too many gifts and had a wonderful holiday.
I hope you had a wonderful holiday as well. I’m off to try and sweat out some more sprinkles and reminisce about one heck of a year.
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