It is hard to believe that Christmas and New Year's have past, it seemed to go so quickly. As I reflect on it, I think that it may have gone so fast becuase I was able to enjoy the time with my family for really the first time in many years. I'll come back to that shortly. There was lots of fun, good food and great company. There was only one downside to the holiday, oh and it was a bad one, but fortunately short-lived.
I was running around on christmas eve, which is one of my favorite days of the year. See, I am a people watcher, so I love to be out watching people run around like crazy. I make sure that I let people go first in line, be nice to cashiers and wave someone through in the parking lot. It was truly a fun day. I spent most of the afternoon wraping presents and excited about the peace and calm of a late christmas eve of mass and wrapping those final presents. I was planning to go to church, come home, wrap a few gifts and write a blog about my fond memories of christmas eve's past. Unfortunately, after driving the kids crazy, especially Chloe, with my christmas singing and a wonderful dinner my stomache was not in a good place. (No, it was not from the dinner!) I spent the next 12 hours as a very unhappy camper. It was so bad that two days later my ribs hurt when laughing. My stomache muscles worked way to hard getting whatever was in my system out. So I spent the evenng alone in bed. That blog will have to wait until next year.
Fortunately, by about 10 am christmas day, I was feeling better. At least well enough to watch the kids open presents. I love to watch the excitement on their faces as they open gifts. This year was fun as Liz got a wonderful gift from Santa, much to her surprise. She must have been a really good girl this year. Probably putting up with me would qualify her for that title every year! In all, although a little lite on presents it was a wonderful day with just the five of us - oh and our dog cinnamon too! (The kids would be mad if I left her out.)
The next week was spent with family and friends. We travelled to Binghamton to spend time with Liz's family and friends, while there was some chaos it was a very enjoyable trip. We had a great day with Liz's whole family, hosted by her aunt and uncle, and I got to spend time with two very dear friends. These two have been "in my foxhole" as one of them likes to say for more than 10 years. It was really great to see them, especially at a time when we are not busy with work and other commitments. I greatly appreciate them taking the time to get together. Our trip got extended when we all felt like we needed one more day to crash, we also were able to help Liz's parents move some things around before they head south. It was great to have another peaceful day.
The last few days were spents doing some little things, letting the kids relax and some great time with my parents after the New Year. Not much about New Year's Eve since I think we were in bed by 10 pm, although the kids stayed up til just about 1 am. Liz fell asleep pretty quick and I stayed up reading the second half of the last Harry Potter book - can't wait until June to see the final movie!
Now that the kids are back in school and trying to get in a routine, I guess the one big thing I took away from this holiday season was how nice it was not to have to worry about going to the office to check for end of year gifts, having to attend a basketball game, and always checking email to keep up with what is going on. Those activities had always been apart of my holidays. Not that they were bad ( I got to go to games at Villanova and at the Palestra) but it always broke up the time with family and friends. It made it harder to do some of the things that we wanted to do as a family, becuase we always had to account for one or two work days. I probably won't have the option of doing it again, but having been able to this year will have me thinking in the years to come how can I take the full week off and just enjoy it. This will allow us to enjoy our family time, see good friends and truly enjoy the holidays!
In all the holidays were great. I hope that you and your family had a wonderful holiday season, were able to celebrate the season of giving, and take a few mnutes to remember how it all began with a baby in a manager!
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