Christmas

 

This year's Christmas was one filled with family and lots of time just hanging around at the house.  The holiday's fell on a Sunday so we ended up with the Monday after off and I've decided that that's my favorite way for them to fall!  It's so lovely having the Monday off after all the hub-bub and excitement.

The kids worked long and hard on this cardboard house - I got it at Target right before Thanksgiving and they colored on it for the entire month leading up to Christmas.  We finally assembled it a day or two before and they now use it for a restaurant/store/fort.  (A good purchase!)

Our normal Christmas Eve plans changed this year when Tim and Lynda ended up driving to New York to be with cousin Ally who was in a bad car accident a week or two before.  So, for the first time in a LONG LONG time, we attended Christmas Eve service at church.  It's hard to tell if the website was wrong, or if plans changed because of the cold that evening, but what we thought was a 4pm service at the Methodist church turned out to be an empty parking lot, so we pivoted really quick and joined Dan at the Catholic church just down the road.  No matter the religion it was nice to sit there quietly in a packed church and to remember the reason for celebrating.  I'm hoping we try to incorporate church into our lives a little more in 2023.  

The sunset and moon on our way home from church was impossible to capture in a photo, but I tried.  

No Christmas Eve party plans meant we also had time to make a beautiful Christmas Eve dinner.  Erin had the great idea of doing short ribs which I don't think I've ever made before.  Just writing about them makes me want to make them again.   I think I might put them on the menu here for a weekend night sometime soon.  Erin stayed back and manned the kitchen and the caramelized onion risotto while the rest of us went to church.  It was SO SO SO good!

The kids made up Santa's cookie plate and this sweet note for him and we tucked the kids in bed and put on a Christmas movie.  Mom and Dad spent Christmas at Joey's this year, so it was just the 6 of us (plus the two dogs).  A quite holiday but still so much fun.  

Santa came!!  And we all got everything we ever wanted.  The "hottest" gifts of the year for Hazel were "my robot dog and my joke book".  Abby says her favorite were "my Dog Man book and my journal set".  We got the kids new camping chairs and an outdoor ninja set line (which I highly doubt they will use as much as they think they will) and a new sled.  Now all we need is some snow!  

One of my favorite gifts was the new bird feeder holder Ryan made me (you can see it here propped up against the deck railing).  It's since been dug into the place where the old feeder was - but the best part about this one is that it's squirrel proof!  At least for now.  I love my feeders so much (sheesh that makes me sound old).  I love watching the birds outside the basement window as I work.  They have become a real conversation piece as we sit at the dinner table chatting with friends etc.  

In the days between Christmas and New Years we traveled to see nearly all of our local friends - another friend each night.  We managed to see Nichole and Matt, Betsy and Pat, Lauren and Brian and Jamie and Zach!  It was busy but so nice to catch up with everyone.  Ryan even snuck in a day at Mom and Dad's helping to get a roof on the new cabin they are building for the kids in the woods.  And that swung us right into New Years and another holiday meal!