Well, 2020 is here so that means it's really time for me to close out the 2019 posts and get that photo book printed! It's one of my favorite things to receive during the year. I decided to do one big Christmas round up post that includes both "Grandma Christmas" and "Real Christmas" or at least that's the names the girls gave the two events.
I was so lucky to be able to spend 4 days home in Freeport this year right before Christmas. Six or seven years ago we decided that we'd always celebrate Ritterbusch Christmas the weekend before the actual holiday. This year that feel just 2 days before "real Christmas" and it was so fun to be home for such an extended period of time with the girls and my parents. In fact! I was home for so long that Dad, Mom and I were able to cut an entire trailer of wood. And, if you know us, adding another trailer to our pile is a top priority this time of year, so it was a great weekend when we added that bonus in!
Of course, the highlight of the trip for the kids was the visit from Santa! We've been so lucky to celebrate a few days early these past few years because it's meant that Santa has been able to sneak down for an hour or so to see us, you know, before he get's too busy on Christmas Eve! Santa brought the kids a few presents and they all loved getting to chat with him and seeing their names on the Nice List!
I was especially happy that Peggy game down to celebrate with us as well. I love spending the days chatting, playing games and just hanging out with family. It's such a fun, festive time of the year and I'm always bummed when the holidays are over and we're just facing winter ahead of us.
OH! And, Mom and Dad also hosted the traditional Ritterbusch Open House with all our local friends. As you know, the Open House has been a tradition since I was a kid since we didn't have any family that lived locally, my parents would open up the house on Christmas Eve before church and all of our friends would come through and visit when it fit into their schedules. I played bartender again this year and it was so fun to get to catch up with everyone and chat.
Fast forward three days and it was Christmas morning at our house. My parents were with Joey and Andy this year so it was just us, and Dan and Erin. We did McGrath Christmas on Christmas Eve as is the tradition on that side of the family. This year Ann and John hosted it in Wheaton which was a nice change for the year - I hope they are willing to do it again next year!
Christmas this year brought some really fun gifts! Santa brought this cute puppy and kitty to the girls. He really wanted to keep them for himself but in his letter he said that Rudolph was playing a little too rough with them and while Santa knew the girls really wanted a live kitty and puppy he was hoping that they would be willing to adopt these two instead. Santa must have known that I'm just not ready for any more pets in this house!
Another big hit was the Airfort that Santa brought. I'm not even sure how he thought of it, it wasn't on the girls lists but it was one of the biggest hits of the day! It's a cute little tent that fills with air from a box fan making a fort with little set up and little mess, which, this Momma sure likes! My favorite gift was from Ryan, a Nintendo Switch! I'll admit, I didn't get the joke when I opened a box that had an old lightswitch in it...I just couldn't connect the dots. It is super fun and Abby now loves playing MarioKart with one of us adults. I am pretty sure Ryan wasn't trying to turn our daughters into gamers but that might have been an unintended side effect.
Christmas day it was nearly 50 degrees and while I think we were all wishing for a white Christmas, we couldn't help but take advantage of the nice weather and we did a group hike at one of the forest preserves near our house. We didn't even need coats!! Of course, Maudie and Max (our new puppy and kitty) had to join in on the hike too!
What else can I say, we ate too much, we drank too much, we opened a lot of gifts and just enjoyed a slow day with family. It was so nice that we all sat outside on the back deck for over an hour in the sun playing with the kids new toys. We considered dining al fresco, just because we could...but as the sun dipped lower in the sky, we decided inside was better (and warmer). But, we nearly ate Christmas dinner, outside, on our back deck, in northern Illinois. I'm sure we'll be paying for this weather come February when Ryan is gone in North Carolina for a month and I'm here solo running the wood-burner and the snow plow. But, for now, I'm going to call that a "future me" problem and just continue to enjoy the warm days when we can get em.
