Favorite Holiday Moments 2021

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!! I did. 🙂

It always goes by so fast!! I do feel a little sense of relief when all the hustle is over, but also a bit of sadness that the excitement and fun is over, too.

Instead of a full play by play, I want to share some of my favorite “moments” from this Christmas season.

• A few days before Christmas Ivan and I went out to his friend’s Mexican restaurant (the place with the nachos). It’s located downtown, near a big university campus, but school was out already for the semester. The place was 100% empty, except us. They have a big, beautifully decorated Christmas tree (with a sombrero on top) with brightly colored twinkle lights. We sat at the bar and ate and talked, and they had Christmas music playing- in Spanish, mariachi style. It was so fun!! Something about hearing Jingle Bells and other holiday favorites in a spicy Latin beat was just really festive. 🙂 It was a nice holiday moment for me.

• The night Ethan and I went out shopping, we stopped at a local outdoor strip mall (all very nicely decorated, with a big tree in the center court). They had piped in music outside and were playing this slow, very pretty version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (one of my favorites). Ethan and I both looked around at all the lights, the music, etc. and said, “This feels like we’re in a movie!” 🙂 Another really nice moment. Brief, random- yet one that will stick with me.

• My afternoon wrapping presents + watching Serendipity was very enjoyable.

• Hallmark movies on my TV almost non-stop for the few days leading up to Christmas.

• Baking cookies with the boys always feels special. Every moment isn’t always perfect, and they tend to lose interest eventually. But it just feels like one of those things they will be happy to look back on one day. “Remember when we always used to bake cookies with Mom before Christmas?”

• Finally getting to check off a couple classic Christmas favorites. On the 25th we watched Miracle on 34th Street, the original, in black and white. Such a great show! Then on the 26th we watched It’s a Wonderful Life. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that movie. We all do, in my family. Something about the whole time period makes me nostalgic for a time I never even lived, first of all. Then, of course, just the message is spectacular. A+++. We watch this one every year.

• An unexpected gift that made me smile was a little “Maine” package from my Mom. Obviously, she bought this stuff in secret while on our trip in August, but it was fun to unwrap and think of our vacation. And the can of Clam Chowder made me laugh- if you read my trip reports, you’ll know I ate like 20 bowls of clam chowder during our time in Maine.

• A moment that seriously cracked me up was when my Mom opened a gift (from my “Dad”, but actually something she had bought herself). It was a sweater. But I was so confused, because when she opened it, it was the same sweater I had bought for her! So I said, “Oh, that one is from me.” (Thinking she had misread the tag and actually opened one from me). And she replied, “No….What do you mean? I bought this for myself!” We were all very confused. So then she dug around in her present pile, found the one labeled from me, and opened that one. SAME SWEATER!! Hahaha!!! I was very relieved to know that I apparently NAILED my choice in sweaters for her! What are the odds I would pick out the exact same sweater she picked out for herself? So funny and ironic!! 🙂 I guess I know her well. 😉

• Something else that made us all laugh repeatedly all weekend was this little gag gift my Mom bought for my Dad. Brief back story- my Dad is an extremely talented handyman. He can build, fix, create whatever you want. He’s quite amazing. But, with one caveat. He is very meticulous, careful and detailed…..aka…SLOW. It’s kind of a running joke in my family that if you want it done well, have my Dad do it. If you want it done quickly, get someone else. 😉 So my mom picked this up from Hobby Lobby for his workroom at home:

It’s literally perfection!! TOO funny!

• Opening this gift from Ivan….

Yep, that’s a Lululemon bag! I FINALLY am the owner of a pair of Lululemon leggings, after saying I wanted to try them for like, 3 years now. Bonus points to Ivan for figuring out the style, size, etc. on his own! He even went to the Lulu store in person and talked to the sales girl for tips. 🙂

• Playing a piano duet with Ethan of “Angels We Have Heard on High” is WAY up there as a favorite memory. It’s a beautiful arrangement, and playing with him like that was just really special to me.

• Ethan’s facial expression on Christmas morning was PRICELESS….his main “Santa” gift was his first real iphone, with data and a phone number and everything. Obviously, VERY exciting for a 13 year old boy. I took a video (this is a screenshot), but his mouth literally dropped open in surprise. It was classic!

• Multiple “snack meals” around the bar. This is one of my favorite things to do around the holidays, and probably the main time all year that we really even use our bar!!! (Why we don’t use it MORE often, I don’t know! Goal for 2022??) It’s just so festive down there and I really enjoy the whole experience.

I think I’ll stop there! Those are some of my favorite moments I can think of- but there were SO many. I just love Christmastime!! I’m a big fan of traditions (hence why we never travel over the holidays). Ivan does want to spend a Christmas in Mexico sometime, so we will probably do that some year before the boys leave home. (I know it will be VERY VERY different). These are some of my most cherished memories though!

Hope you had a Christmas full of memory making, too. 🙂

Daily Gratitude:

I am just really grateful for another Christmas with my family.

Bonus pic: Asher modeling his new swim team hat. I just think he looks cute. 🙂