The kids had two full weeks off for Christmas break this year, which was exhausting. Super fun. But still exhausting.
We started the festivities out on Saturday, February 19th by having Dan's parents over for a mini-celebration (with gifts of course). And food. Lots of food. The next morning we left for four days in NYC (photos coming soon).
We returned from NYC on Wednesday night, the 30th, (after driving through hours of torrential rain) and started preparations for a huge(ish) Christmas Eve feast with all of Dan's family. The cousins bonded and played (mostly) outside as temps neared 80 degrees (which did sort of dampen the Christmas spirit).
Christmas morning was a typical celebration of consumerism's excess. The kids opened package after package, while I continually asked myself, "do they really need all of this crap? where are we even going to put it?"
Luckily, for the first year ever nobody cried. Though, poor P came close, she really wanted an itouch, so Santa (being the crafty saver that he is) decided to save a little money and buy her a refurbished 4th generation edition. Apparently, Apple changed all software between the 4th and 6th editions, making them completely incompatible. So P can't download almost any apps (including all the basics like netflix and spotify). I'm a little cranky at Apple right now (a lot cranky). Oh well, now she can text, which is enough.
For Christmas dinner we made another feast (of course) and invited friends to dinner, who brought fondue (yum). Plus, my mom flew in from Chicago.
Somewhere in the night, we decided to play 90s tunes and dance around the kitchen (which I'm sure (sarcasm) was really fun for my mom). Then we moved onto David Allan Coe's Darlin' and the singing could not be stopped.
Where were the kids you ask? Costuming, of course.
My mom looks like she's having fun, um, right? I mean, what could be better than watching 30/40 year olds make fools of themselves?
And then things were mellow for awhile. Lots of boardgames and leftovers. We took my mom to see Wonder at the Renwick Gallery. Watched bad movies. Napped. I had two photoshoots.
NYE's began at 6 pm, as we moved between four houses for our progressive party. I wish I would have brought my camera for the whole event, because the kids had a blast singing karaoke and playing soccer.
Our house was the last stop (around 11:00 pm), by that point we had lost about 50% of the revelers. But everyone still had a great time ringing in the new year. Dan made (amazing) homemade ice cream sandwiches and we left out slips of paper to throw in the fire pit, where everyone could write the things they wanted to leave behind in 2015. Lots of papers talked about not fighting with siblings anymore, but I'm trying not to raise my hopes too high.
We spent the (final) weekend recovering. My roommate from undergrad came to town with her husband and his parents, who I visited at their home in Chile 13 or so years ago. It was so great to see them again!
So that was our "two weeks of Christmas". Super awesome in so many ways. It felt amazing to see so many family and friends in such a short period of time. But I'm also totally ready for the kids to return to school.
How about you? Did you enjoy your two weeks of Christmas?
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