Christmas 2022 Recap!
Well, another Christmas has come and gone, and for the 20th year in a row I was unanimously voted “Christmas MVP” by my family. I really go all out, and would do it even if no one else acknowledged it, because I love Christmas so much. But it’s nice, as the kids get older, to hear them express their appreciation. My husband is always appreciative of the fact that I handle almost every aspect of Christmas by myself- all the decorating (including outside lights,) baking, present buying (other than the presents he gives me, of course) present wrapping, and everything else that goes along with being “Santa.” I realized years ago that Christmas just isn’t that important to my husband. He thinks it’s a nice holiday, like Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day and the 4th of July, but doesn’t see it as super-special. If I want the holiday to be special I have to do it myself. The other thing that has to be mentioned is that my husband works a LOT in December. He’s a trumpet player and plays a lot of gigs this time of year, including a midnight mass on Christmas Eve. The money he brings in makes all the other things possible- so he definitely does his part behind the scenes. Let’s start with Christmas Eve! We always host a cookie decorating party. The cookies came out… interesting, as usual. Here’s a plate we put together for our neighbor with some of the nicer ones: And here’s a couple OTHER ones. After cookies we ate dinner, took a walk and then our friends left. There was something new this year- my son played the Christmas Eve service with my husband! After they left, my daughter and I cleaned the living room and moved all the presents that were under the tree to the couch, to make room for the Santa presents. (Important side note: my kids obviously do not believe in Santa anymore. But they still appreciate that magical feeling of waking up on Christmas morning and being surprised by the presents under the tree, so I’ll keep it going as long as they want… probably until they have kids of their own!) Christmas Day… Santa came! We all opened presents… Here’s my haul: And here’s the Book Flood (combination of books we all got.) Funny story… originally my husband and I both got each other the David Goggins book. My son realized this and told my husband, so he returned mine and got the Lucy Foley book instead. Good call- we don’t need two copies. Our traditional Christmas breakfast is cinnamon rolls, which I failed to photograph. My family enjoyed them while I had gingerbread oatmeal (yum.) In the afternoon we had a charcuterie board with our fancy-schmancy vegan cheese which was ordered from Rebel Cheese in Austin, Texas. Christmas afternoon was very, very lazy. The only thing that marred it was that the Dolphins lost… but we had to let that go. Christmas dinner is always lasagna. After dinner my post-Christmas sadness threatened to overwhelm me, but I kept myself busy cleaning. I reminded myself that it’s still the holiday season, and in fact the “Twelve Days of Christmas” BEGIN on December 25th and go until January 6th, Epiphany. Let the festivities continue! At the beginning of the season, I vowed this would be “The Best Christmas Ever.” So… was it? Well, unlike last Christmas, no one got Covid, so that was pretty awesome. And we had a VERY unusual cold front, which made it extra exciting. So yes! It was the best ever… until next year. How was your Christmas? Is Christmas a big deal to you, or is it just like any other holiday? If you don’t celebrate Christmas, what do you do on Christmas Day? – A lot of people here go to the beach on Christmas- but not this year! It was in the 40s and rainy.