Christmas Week

I was raised Jewish, so growing up my family celebrated Hanukkah instead of Christmas.  And while there are many special things about Hanukkah and many wonderful things about Christmas as well, one part of Hanukkah that I wish translated into the Christmas holiday is the length.  Eight days they have to leisurely celebrate the holiday.  One present each night to play with and appreciate before moving onto the next one (a full 24 hours, instead of 24 seconds later), eight nights for special dinners, time for a fire in the fireplace and playing games and singing songs and building a multitude of traditions and not really having to choose between them, because you have eight nights.  In fact, I do like this part of Hanukkah so much that I am deciding whether I should adopt it and celebrate Christmas over a week’s time.  There are twelve days of Christmas right?

This year, I didn’t commit to that idea yet, but I did start the festivities well in advance of Christmas Eve.  I got almost all of my shopping done early, sent out my cards in the beginning of the month, did our baking the first weekend in December, and began the wrapping process almost right away.  I was bound and determined that I would save some time to relax and enjoy the holiday season with my family without worrying about last-minute to-do’s and manic shopping, fighting crowds of overstressed people at all hours in the nights leading up to Christmas.  And gosh darn it, it wasn’t easy, but I did it!

The week leading up to Christmas may as well have been a holiday itself.  We went to cookie parties and dinner parties (and even one girls only party for me).  We hosted a game night, had neighbors over for a bonfire and cocoa, visited the Zoolights with friends, and listened to 99.9 KEZ while we wrapped last minute gifts and ate a table full of treats that were dropped off to us in the last few days leading up to Christmas.  And we didn’t feel tired or stressed or overworked like we often do.  Not this time.  We felt satisfied and quietly excited for the joy that the end of the week would bring.

At this time of year, I feel ever so grateful for our wonderful family and friends.  More than any other time, I feel like I want to be close to others.  I would jump on any excuse to fill our free moments creating memories and catching up with loved ones.  If you know me, you know that I’m a “yes” girl when it comes to get-togethers and social events and anything with the potential for fun and being with people.  I rarely ever and only very regrettably decline an invite.  The holidays make this especially true for me. 

The kids played and watched ‘The Polar Express’ at the Omer’s annual Christmas party.  Good company and great food, what more could you wish for?

 

The Zoolights were as beautiful as always— don’t be fooled by my crappy photos from my old camera! We went with our dear friends, the Edwards family, and had a wonderful night, even if we did most of the time huddled over a picnic table eating our fish and chips, and taking bathroom breaks every thirty minutes.

   

One of my favorite parts of the season is good mail.  The days of mail that doesn’t involve bills and advertisements are a thing of the past, so when the holidays roll around, and I can look forward to checking the mail every day in hopes of getting a stack of bright Christmas cards with my friends and family’s beautiful faces on the front or maybe even a package, I probably get way too happy.  Don’t even get me started about finding a bag or plate full of cookies and fudge and chocolate dipped whatchamacallits on my front porch.  Warm and fuzzy, inside and out.

 

I burn the same candle each year during the holidays.  They say the olfactory sense evokes the strongest memories of all five senses.  “White Christmas” by Cachet is proof enough for me.

A tradition in the making is the brown paper package that we open on Christmas Eve.  The kids can expect to find it packed with new Scholastic books every year.  This year, each kid got ten books.  I’m not shy when it comes to encouraging a love of reading in my littles.

 

On Christmas Eve, my three didn’t know what hit them.  I don’t think they were aware that it was Christmas Eve until we made a little production of it.  Jake opened with a prayer and explained the meaning of Christmas.  Each one got to take turns opening their stocking (which we will always do on Christmas Eve).  This year, they each got a movie and a little stuffed rat from Ikea.  The movies were ‘Toy Story 3’ (Gabe, because he thinks he is Andy), ‘Fantasia’ (Ari, for her love of music), and ‘Beauty and The Beast’ (Bella, because she wears her Belle costume at least one-third of the day, making frequent requests for me to dance with her while she sings her own little rendition of “Beauty and the Beast”… and until now she’s only seen the previews).

The stuffed rat thing may seem odd, but Gabe’s preschool classroom has the same stuffed rat in brown, whose name happens to be Otis.  Each child in the preschool class gets to take a turn taking Otis home with them when they are the Superstar of the week.  Gabe was over the moon when he got to be Superstar of the week for this very reason alone.  When he had to give Otis back to his teacher at the end of his week, it broke his heart.  So, he got Otis’s identical twin brother, Cletus (because it rhymes).  It was so worth it when I saw the love light up his eyes.  Since Ari and Bella naturally covet whatever Gabe has, Ari got a white rat named Maisy (named after the white rat in the famous book series), and Bella got a grey rat named Fredericka (named after the grey rat Frederick in a children’s book). 

        

Jake explained the purpose of the reindeer food, and the kids took turns sprinkling it onto the sidewalk in front of the house.

 

My sister, Leah, and her boyfriend, Goran came over later that night.  We relaxed with some friends until past midnight, which typical for us, because I just hate saying goodbyes and goodnights.  I’m like a little kid when it comes to bedtime – I’m afraid I’ll miss out on precious life if I go to sleep.  One more memory to create, one more funny joke and meaningful conversation.  Please.  One more insight or piece of knowledge to obtain.  Just one more before bed!  But we finally did go to bed, and I think I was the first one of the four of us to turn in (the others stayed up till 3 AM setting up the X Box Kinect, which was our family present).

Christmas morning arrived and the kids gave us our first present – they slept in till the generous hour of 9 AM!  When they went downstairs, their toy boxes were filled with wrapped packages and their big gifts were already assembled.

Favorites were the Toy Story Woody doll and knight set for Gabe, which includes a sword, sheath (his favorite part – he asked Santa for a sheath!), shield, helmet, and breastplate.  Ari loves her V Tech pink laptop (loves techie toys) and Busy Ball Popper.  For Bella, it’s her Bilibo, her slide, and Toy Story Jessie Doll.  Ari got a bunch of little people sets, like a house and farm, which she is really starting to play with correctly.  Although it doesn’t grab her attention as long as the talking toys, she sits upright, moves the people around the house, and makes talking sounds while she plays.  Gabe is really interested in word blending and memorizing words, and loves to “read along” with his Leapfrog Tag.  The most loved group gift is the Step 2 rollercoaster from Grammy and Papa.  The kids are amazing me with how well they take turns on this.  It’s like the happy mobile.

   

My man spoiled me this year.  I couldn’t believe it – he got me an upgraded camera body (Nikon D90) and two new lenses (a zoom and a portrait prime)!  I am so lucky!  Jake got a Garmin Forerunner GPS runners watch and some clothes.  Try as I may, I can’t keep up with his surprises.

Don’t you just love this scene?  Ground zero never looked better.

I gotta say, probably one of my favorite parts of any holiday is cooking… and eating.  Memories are made in the food.  On Christmas Eve, we had a ham and Jake’s favorite five cheese penne.  Christmas brunch was ham, leek, and cheese breakfast burritos and fruit.  My sister, Marci joined us for Christmas dinner, and we had salad, lobster tails (I wasn’t expecting guests to stay for dinner, so we ended up dividing up two tails and sharing), prime rib, roasted rosemary red potatoes, and the rest of the penne with the ham thrown in too.  We saved room for cookies and cobbler too, of course.

I think I say this every year, but this was my favorite Christmas to date.  I didn’t shower or change out of my pajamas all day, and I do that about twice a year.  That should tell you how relaxed and fulfilling it was to just be.  The kids played, we played, we talked and cleaned and cooked and ate and lit yummy smelling candles.  I totally forgot about my phone and returning “Merry Christmas” texts from friends and calls from family until the next day (saawy…).  It was just perfect.