The Holidays - Many, Merry, and Medical

The holidays felt a bit different this year.  School went up until right before Christmas.  I had very little time to prepare or switch gears.  Everything felt weird/empty with Yoon gone.  It was bittersweet turning over his room, preparing it for guests.

I like the school Christmas pageant because it really encapsulates all the feelings, it's like its own zeitgeist.  Robin made a cute, if not perplexed shepherd this year.

This year there felt like there wasn't enough time to do many of the festive things around Puget Sound.  However, we did manage to squeeze in a trip to downtown Seattle with our friend, Beth.  We decided against the 2+ hr wait for the gingerbread houses at the Sheraton.  I'm sure they were cool, but not cool enough to wait that long.  The Teddy Bear Suite at the Olympic Fairmount did not disappoint.  I also really like the addition of a large gingerbread playhouse.

The Christmas Eve Children's mass was lovely.  The kids referenced the "homily" for days.  We looked pretty cute.  Robin looked cute and mildly evil.

 I got fancy and straightened my hair.

Christmas morning was very chill.  The kids were very good about not going downstairs until 7 am.  This year everyone got something to read, something to wear, a slightly larger gift, and a smaller gift.  Eileen was overjoyed to receive a bathrobe, slippers, and Caboodle (thank you author, Reyna Telgemeier for telling her these existed).  Robin had a very Pokemon based Christmas.  Linus was most excited about a wood burning kit.  Dave showed he knows me/loves me.  He gave me a journal to write in and a massage gift certificate to relax.

Dave made Eileen a workbench.

We hosted Christmas with my side of the family in the evening.  This year Gino's mother joined us from Argentina.  We all spent lots of time fawning over baby Cedric.

Sally demonstrated she truly knows/understands Eileen.  Watching squirrels has become a new exciting activity for all the kids.

Linus informed me that his favorite part of Christmas, besides the white elephant party, is the fact that my sister and her family come stay with us for a week.  I don't disagree. The kids played hard all week building forts, wearing costumes, running around outside.  My house was trashed more times than I can count.

I'm grateful I didn't have to host the White Elephant party.  I did my part though and baked gluten free donuts, half vanilla glazed, half maple glazed.  They turned out awesome.  My crockpot egg casserole was pretty good too.

White elephants are very fun when you are with people who have a wicked sense of humor.  The kids enjoyed playing reindeer games in the basement.

Eileen won this beauty.  I tried to make plans to have it disappear, but she was too busy cradling it and adoring it.

We finally got a picture of all the grandkids.  Dylan was not impressed.

The fun continued into New Years Eve where Dave worked until 10 pm. 

Linus REALLY wanted to go to the New Years/Birthday party at Sally and Gino's.  He even typed up 9 pages of conversational Spanish and categorized the topics.  I felt so bad by his sobbing that I took him over when Dave got home.  He unintentionally trolled all the attendees by wearing his complete Brazil national soccer team uniform to a party full of Argentinians.  Cedric, sporting his Argentinian jersey, forgave him.

Beautiful host, Sally.

We rounded out the holidays by celebrating with Dave's family on New Year's Day.  I especially enjoyed chatting with my nieces.

So the holidays were many and merry.  Amidst all the merry making, there were many, many trips to the doctor and Children's Hospital.  One day was especially fun when I had two visits to Children's in one day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  The good news is they weren't all for Robin.  I basically took a child to a doctor every weekday of break that was not a holiday, sometimes back to back appointments with 20 minutes in between to drive to different locations.  It was fun....I'm very grateful for all the Starbucks gift cards I received from students.  They kept me alive over break.

I'm hoping for a little time to decompress the last few days of winter break.  Linus is unnerved by the empty feeling of the house. To be fair, I did take down the Christmas decorations yesterday which adds to the emptiness.  After a whirlwind month, it's nice to just finally breathe.