Different, But Good

Well, Christmas is over and it was quite the ride this year.  I felt like I was ahead of the curve for most of the month, but as time ticked down, I realized there definitely weren't enough hours in the day to get everything done.  I worked Monday but decided I needed to take off Tuesday.  I had finished everything I needed to, and my mind wouldn't be into work anyway.  Originally we thought Jacob had an afternoon game that day, but then it was confirmed to be a night game.  Either way it meant we couldn't do our usual Christmas Eve Eve with church and dinner, which was a bummer.  We woke up to some snow on Tuesday, and word came early that Jacob's game was canceled.  There wasn't that much snow and it was supposed to turn to rain later, so initially we were a little confused, but it turned out that the team they were playing still had school that day and they had enough snow there (about 45 minutes away) to have a snow day.  It had been a week and a half since Jacob's last game, so we were bummed it was canceled, but I definitely needed that time back!  Initially we thought we could do our Christmas Eve Eve as planned, but then Jacob's coach set up a scrimmage from 4-6, which effectively took over any possibility for church.  I spent most of the day doing food prep, packing, and some final running around and wrapping, and then took a break so Carter and I could go to church.  Christmas Eve is one of my favorites, particularly because our church does a beautiful candlelit "Silent Night" at the end.  It's so beautiful and is always one of those moments where I transition from Christmas prep to actually celebrating Christmas.  Then it was back home to prep our lobster dinner (salmon for Craig) and more food, including our breakfast cinnamon rolls.  By that point I was so tired, so over all the work.  Usually my breaking point is that last stop at Wegmans when everything feels overwhelming and I just sort of want to cry right then and there.  I didn't have that this year, but it definitely hit me in the middle of the food prep and the endless rounds of dishes with so much final stuff needing to be done.

It ended up being a pretty late night with all of that, plus trying to shoo the kids off to bed so the gifts could come out.  Carter is officially past the Santa thing, but I refused to bring gifts up until they were upstairs.  Of course Jacob had to come down for something in the middle of it, but whatever.  His loss of the surprise, I guess.  After everything was out, I did a longer than usual moment sitting in the dark with the trees and lights.  I had been listening to our church worship director's Spotify playlist during all of my cookie baking and food prep, and one of the songs on it was also part of the Christmas Eve service.  It was such a beautiful song that I just sat there for a bit listening to that.  

I love the Scandinavian-inspired star that I got last year.

I was very happy with how all my decor turned out this year.

We were planning on getting up pretty early because we ideally needed to get on the road by 11 or so, but let's just say we all needed sleep!  Still, we were up at a reasonable time.  Craig (and Carter's hippo) crashed the stair picture!

And here's the real stair picture...

They're really looking giant these days, no?

After I typed that caption above, I actually took a few minutes to gather up a folder of all the stair photos so I could look at them in sequence.  The first one was in 2012 with just Jacob, and then he was solo again the following year when Carter was still a baby.  From there on it's been both of them, and the transition from the first one together to this year is pretty shocking.

I mean...seriously?  Time is a THIEF.

Gifts this year were a bit all over the place.  We didn't really have any big gifts for either kid, though we did have a couple fun ones.  We'd make good on it, trust me.  But first, stockings!

So, back when Carter was in his really bad UC flare at the end of the summer, I bought him a stuffed hippo he really liked at Aldi.  I subsequently got my capybara from the same line.  The hippo definitely brightened his life at a tough time, and quickly become a full-fledged member of the family with his own voice and personality.  Carter has even animated him with AI apps, which is pretty funny.  He'd been saying the hippo needs a friend, and Craig took it upon himself to order two!  I spent most of the season obsessed with finding Christmas hippo pajama pants at Five Below, which I did on my epic shopping night out when I picked up the stocking stuffers and a few other things (which, incidentally, two-weeks-later me was SUPER grateful I did--that kind of last minute shopping might have done me in!).  Separately, Craig had ordered a hippo shirt, and in the end it made the perfect Christmas PJs!

The hippo had his own gift under the tree--a small hippo--and Carter got this big snuggly one.  

Jacob got a sleepy Simba like Carter's Figment that he got at Disney this summer.  I ordered it from Target, and the package got stuck for over a week past its delivery date.  After the incident a few years ago where that happened and we ended up with a box of cat food (and the actual gifts out of stock), I checked in with Target and they sent a replacement in two days...only to have the other one finally show up a couple days later.  So we now have two Simbas, one of which will probably get donated at some point.

Jacob also got a few pairs of pajama pants, a real Apple charging cord and some new headphone adapters, a TENS unit for stim at home, some shorts, and this year's ornament, a Mickey Mouse nutcracker.  I also got him (and the family) a WiFi extender since he always complains about the Xbox WiFi not being good because it's at the far end of the house.  We might actually need a new router, but we'll give that a shot first.  Carter got a new water bottle for school, a bunch of soda flavored lip balms that he wanted at the Coca-Cola store at Disney, a Blue Jays shirt, a couple other shirts (he really needed long-sleeved shirts that fit!), some new Christmas socks, and baseball cards.  He had a couple too-expensive Lego sets on his list, which he didn't get, but at the last minute Craig ordered him something a bit more reasonable, which was waiting for us when we got home.  We also allowed the boys to get an Xbox game earlier in the month when it was cheaper.  Carter also got a $12 boost in a game he's been playing, and Jacob was also allowed to order a pair of sneakers he wanted.  Craig got a new snowbrush and The Office Polly Pocket set (I know, sounds funny, but he got the Peanuts one for his birthday and said he liked the Office one, too, and I found it SUPER cheap).  The boys gave me a cool baseball sweatshirt.

After gifts, I prepped our cinnamon rolls and bacon, and then it was a longer-than-ideal process of getting packed up to leave.  As I said, we should have been on the road by 11am, but that didn't quite work out.  There was just too much.  We finally hopped in the car (my car, which barely fit what we needed, but mine is more trustworthy) around noon.  We got to Aunt Marie's around 1:30.  It was nice to see a few of Craig's cousins and their kids.  It's not quite the chaotic, full-extended-family stop it used to be, but it's always nice.

After that is where things got a little different.  Craig's parents were staying at a hotel in between houses.  They sold theirs but had a little delay getting into their new house, so it was a hotel for the holidays this year.  And since his parents and brother aren't really on good terms right now, that meant we had two stops that night.  We went to the hotel and hung out with his parents for probably an hour and a half in the lobby, to give them their gifts and spend some time with them.  All things considered, it was a nice time.  It'll be better to be with them in their new house next year, though!  Because of their transitional phase, their gifts all came to our house ahead of time.  I got a tablet so I can read digital books, Craig got a snowblower (which came in handy immediately after Christmas), Jacob got some shorts, and Carter got a Jays shirt.   

After that we headed to Craig's brother's house.  We had a delicious dinner, exchanged gifts, and watched Elf.  We were missing our niece who was still in Pittsburgh with her boyfriend, but overall it was a nice night.  It's always still weird because we're used to being with the whole family and we don't like being in the middle of their issues.  It's hard to hear them talk negatively about one another and know the truth is usually somewhere in between, and not really know how or if to take sides.  We love them both, but having to manage all those feelings and relationships is challenging.  We hope that in time they will find a way to reconnect and make peace, but it's entirely possible this Christmas is the first of many like this.  After that, we headed to my parents' house for the night.

This Christmas Eve night was much better than last year when Jacob was up all night worrying about his leg.  It was nice to have a normal night and Christmas morning this year.  We went to church with my parents, grabbed breakfast for all the boys at Starbucks on our way home, opened a few gifts, had a lovely ham dinner, and then opened more gifts.  

We clean up pretty nice!

Jacob got some compression shirts and shorts, Carter got a Soda Stream, a shirt, and a viola ornament, Craig got a Braves shirt and some money, and I got my angel ornament, really nice hanging kitchen towels, dish drying mats, my Chihuly calendar, and super randomly--a sewing machine!  My mom had bought it to replace hers, but ended up getting hers fixed.  But since she'd already used it, she gave it to me.  I haven't used a sewing machine since I was 13 years old in Home Economics (when I made my very cute stuffed pig), and I have no idea what I will use it for, but I guess we'll see how it goes!

I gave my mom a Bills sweatshirt and some gloves that have the phone-friendly fingers, both of which were on her list.  We splurged a bit on my dad (my brother split it, as well) and got him a Bird Buddy birdhouse with a webcam.  Might be a bit of a stretch, but my dad loves appreciating God's creation, so I think he'll enjoy the birds!  

In the afternoon we played a game of SkyJo, the family favorite card game.  It truly is a lot of fun, and Jacob loves it more than anyone.  After a little bit I needed to make some food for our last stop, Uncle Jeff's.  We had a good time there catching up with everyone.  My cousins are great, their kids are nuts, and it's always a nice evolution of the Christmas night chaos we all grew up with.  It's hard watching the older generation age, and I wish more of the cousins were able to be there, but it's still special every year.  We took our stair pictures once again, too.
  

We're missing my cousin Nicki's two girls, my cousin Chris' daughter, plus Kate and Max

We're missing Nicki (the oldest), my brother, Chris, Kim (who was there but chose not to be in the picture), and Kevin.

We were truly blessed to grow up how we did, with so many cousins and loving grandparents, aunts, and uncles.  I wish I lived closer to be more connected to them as adults, but it's always nice to catch up.  And I'd say we all chose spouses well, too!  

We finished off the night with an abbreviated Trivial Pursuit game (like the old days, but shorter), and I happened to win the game for the ladies!  The winning question was about the name of the company started by Thomas Watson, and I suspected it was IBM because their supercomputer was named Watson.  I was right!  I won the girls a night out at everyone's favorite local bar.  Whether or not I'll be able to be there when it happens, I'm not sure, but it was fun to get bragging rights.

Overall, it was a good Christmas.  I think all of the elements were there, even if the structure felt a bit different than usual.  It was a bummer we couldn't do Christmas Eve church together as a family, and obviously Craig's family dynamics were quite a bit different.  But we got to see everyone and do (most of) the things, got nice gifts, and had a lot of fun.  What happened right after, however...will wait for the next post!