It's not too often you finish up the old year before you finish up Christmas, but this year we did just that. We finished off 2020 pretty quietly, with "choose-your-own take-out" and some TV viewing. Both kids made it to midnight and yet it was still a struggle to get them in bed! Fortunately, as I mentioned, we received negative test results for all three of us earlier in the week, which meant we could go to Buffalo to wrap up our Christmas.
On New Year's morning, I packed up, finished up a couple gift details, and finally pulled the rest of the presents out from underneath our tree. It took an extra eight days, but we finally got our trip to Buffalo. That drive is usually my holiday decompression moment on Christmas Eve, but this time it definitely felt different. We stopped to drop off a couple gifts with Craig's aunt's family (where we usually spend Christmas Eve dinnertime) then headed to see the rest of his family. We had a lovely time in spite of trying to stay masked for the visit. Our sister-in-law made up a bunch of appetizers--bacon wrapped sausage, meatballs, crab cakes, kielbasa, taco dip, plus Christmas cookies--and we had a couple drinks and just talked and reminisced. We got to open gifts, too. The kids made out like bandits as usual. Both boys got pajamas, Jacob got more clothes, and Carter got a game called Drone Home and a Treasure X pirate ship (much like the tomb he got last Christmas). He also got a giant Lego Baby Yoda! Craig and I got some nice things as well, including some clothes and a new set of sheets. It was nice to exchange gifts finally and get some family time, even if it all felt different.
We spent the night at my parents' house and were able to exchange gifts that morning. Jacob got more clothes (are you sensing a theme?), Carter got a shirt, a toy, and some credits for his favorite app, Craig got a DVD player (the remotes for both of ours are shot) and a shirt, and I got a few different things including a kitchen scale, my angel ornament, necklace, and Norwex cloths. Oh, and more sheets! I was more excited to give gifts, if I'm being honest! Since my dad doesn't really want gifts, I gave him a bottle of a nostalgic favorite wine, which I knew he'd love. My mom had asked for a zero gravity chair a while back, and I finally made good on that. Also, since I hadn't really given them an anniversary gift, and both of their birthdays fall within about three weeks, I offered up an option of either a printed photo album or a large wall photo collage made from the photos I scanned (plus some others), in order to create a family photo history of some sort. They have a photo collage in their dining room that includes probably 12-15 photos from 1970 to about 1985. I figured maybe they'd like a sequel! We'll see what they choose! It was hard to figure out a proper gift for them since I can't top all those scanned photos, so I figured this might be a good option. We finished off our time there with a delicious ham dinner before heading out for a stop at the outlet mall. We made the 20 minute wait to get into the Nike store worth our while--Carter and I found sneakers, and Jacob got pants and socks. Jacob did make up for his lack of sneakers with a stop at the Adidas store, where he got a pair in the next size up for half off. Craig did well at the Gap outlet. Other than Carter whining incessantly, it was a successful stop!
It was good to get home that evening and get everything as unpacked and put away as possible, and still have Sunday to finish off a few things. I got my wrapping paper, and extra gift bags, tissue, and boxes put away, and cleaned up a bunch of piles around the house. Of course, I didn't take down the Christmas stuff because it seemed too soon, but it won't come down next weekend either because I'll be out of town. I'm planning on taking next Monday off to recover from my weekend, since it's a lot of driving, I don't know when I'll be home, and I'm not accustomed to having that much action in my life! I might be exhausted! I figure there will also be a lot of household things undone from the weekend and I don't want to spend all day Monday annoyed by them. I can hopefully start de-Christmasing then, too.
The other highlight from the weekend was that my "alternate Christmas gift" arrived. The video game console Craig and the boys bought me didn't work out quite as planned. It was fun to scan through the games and try to play a bunch of them, but the playability of the games wasn't that great. Super Mario Bros. was pretty good, but it all went downhill from there. The controls didn't work that well on some of the games (like Craig's beloved Burger Time or my old family fave Arkanoid), and some others were just confusing or odd. It did not have Super Mario 2 or 3, which was disappointing since some online descriptions made it seem like it did. It was also a bit temperamental, so in the end we figured it wasn't worth keeping. But since the sentiment behind the gift was sweet, I took it as a hint that I should finally buy something I had been eyeing up for a while - Super Mario All-Stars for Wii! It includes all three Mario games plus lost levels for Super Mario 1. It arrived on Saturday and I spent a couple hours the last two days getting myself reacquainted. Some of it was easier, some was harder. How the progress saves is weird for Super Mario 2, and I keep getting stuck in the same spot in 3 and the Lost Levels, so I need to be patient and keep working on it. Practice makes perfect, of course! Now, how to fit in that, working out, and my usual decompression time with my phone apps is the next question, but it's nice to have options!
It's back to reality now. Jacob's back to school and some basketball, but Carter is stuck at home until Friday because of how our quarantine technically extends off of Jacob's (although I feel like with two spaced out negative tests we should have been able to cut that a little shorter). My week is mostly going to be getting through work and preparing myself for my trip. I'm a little nervous to travel and stay in a hotel, but it will be nice to get a change of scenery. I've been extra short tempered with the boys lately and I can tell that mentally I just need a break. I'm planning on stopping at the Corning Museum of Glass on the way down since it's one of my happy places. Anywhere with a Chihuly is preferable, and I could use some extra beauty these days. I snagged a room at my beloved Holiday Inn Express, though I'm hoping they still have cinnamon rolls despite pandemic restrictions. I even get to dress up a little more than usual, which is oddly exciting right now. And most of all, I can't wait to see my godson (and the whole rest of the family, of course) since he should be getting more expressive now that he's two months old. I'm also a little excited about my gifts for him! It's such a special thing to be a godparent and I feel lucky to be a part of it for such a special baby. And honestly, it's just nice to have something else to look forward to now that the holidays are officially over.
So, I guess that's a wrap. Christmas wasn't what we'd have expected, and definitely had some missing pieces, but I think we managed quite well. We had some fun memories, some happy moments, and some nice gifts. And now we get to start a whole new year--and hopefully it is the start of better days ahead, as well.
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