A belated 2023 Christmas celebration…finally feels like the new year

Sorry for the radio silence over here… not sure where the last ~5 days went!

My parents came to town Friday night (and are actually still here as we speak). We hadn’t seen them since early December, which, as any faithful readers know, is a LONG time for me to go without seeing my parents. (They went to my sister’s house in Ireland over the holidays for almost a month!)

But now they’re home and my dad was planning to resume work on our bathroom remodel (shower tile going up! yay!!), and we also planned to have our belated family Christmas celebration on Saturday night.

I have to say, I ended up being a big fan of this “Christmas but not on Christmas” thing that we did! Maybe it’s because it wasn’t on the actual day (?), but it all just felt so much less stressful/ pressure than usual. We basically did our normal holiday activities (food, presents, etc.) but it just all seemed way lower key.

In fairness, we did keep it simpler; I made one type of cookie, we set out fewer food options, we didn’t have to fit in Christmas Eve church, and we didn’t get dressed up in “Christmas clothes”.

Turns out the Packers vs 49ers playoff game was also happening Saturday night, so we made the executive decision to all wear comfy clothes and wear our Packers gear. 🙂

I still spent much of the day getting ready- did a grocery run in the morning, followed by prepping pulled pork in the crockpot, making pizza rolls and a batch of thumbprint cookies (I was honestly not going to make more Christmas cookies at this point, but Ethan specifically requested these…). We also had a few misc. presents to wrap! I guess no matter how far we push off Christmas, we’re still never ready on time. LOL.

The game didn’t start until 7:15, so we got food situated around the bar a little while before that.

I think we were kind of all over Christmas movies or a lot of Christmas music at this point, but we did briefly turn on some Christmas tunes on my old fashioned music box. Isn’t it so cool?

The people spin and dance while the music plays.

We usually do snacky type foods on Christmas Eve, so that’s what we had- cheese and crackers, sausage, Chex mix, pulled pork sliders, shrimp + cocktail sauce, and the pizza rolls. Plus cookies.

The boys distributed the gifts into piles. We usually do a fair number of presents for each person (I know… maybe unpopular opinion these days… but old habits die hard…), so it takes a while to round robin to each person to open everything.

Everything went great! The food was good, the football game was good (well, until the end) and all the gifts worked out perfectly.

This year the boys also bought gifts for each person, with their own money. I think this is maybe the first time they’ve really done this (in the past they’ve “helped” select things, but this year they really took ownership of it).

Each boy got a set of LED strip lights for their rooms. (They look SUPER cool up! Highly recommend to spruce up your kids’ room.)

I got a bunch of great stuff… let’s see. This new winter hat and a pair of gloves:

My mom gave me this framed photo of me and Charlie from my 40th birthday:

I also got a bunch of “outdoor reflective” gear!! A light up head lamp, neck lights for walking the dog, and a reflective sash.

Also, a really nice book light (that wraps around your neck, not the kind that clips onto the book! This is way better.) Some new books, a few household items, my Sunday Riley skincare set…

These new slippers from Asher!

Oh, I also got a heat up electric blanket which I can’t wait to use. And other things that I can’t think of right now!

Ethan got this cool poster photo for his room from my parents- it’s a picture of him on the surfing Flow Rider on the cruise last summer. This was a favorite memory for him from the trip.

The boys got some clothes, books, Xbox gift cards, a piano book, misc things like a blender bottle and ornaments, etc. My mom always rises to the challenge of figuring out what to gift teenagers that honestly really don’t need much….

I got Ivan an Apple watch!! I kind of owed him a bigger gift after sort of phoning it in on the last couple of Father’s Days. lol. Ethan got him a nice long sleeved shirt, and Asher picked out a new Nike swimsuit + a hat/scarf set.

Charlie Bear got some new tennis balls and a rabbit chew toy. 🙂

I think the gifts for my parents worked out well, too.

I got my mom a splattering of random things- some earrings and a necklace, a couple books, some really nice, lightweight LL Bean capris (hopefully to use on our Hawaii trip), some bubble bath…Asher bought her some nice Toms slippers, and Ethan got her a winter “bucket hat” (she likes that style hat).

My dad’s main gift was a big gift card to a Beer Supply store (he brews beer at home), plus a new heating pad for his sciatica issues (lol…a “useful” gift). I also bought him a hard copy of Peter Attia’s book Outlive! We had talked about it when I read it last spring, and I think he’ll find it interesting. He did joke that by the time he finally finishes reading it (it’s thick), he’ll turn the last page and roll over and die of old age before he gets to implement any of the longevity tips. HAHA. 😅 Ethan bought him an electric pencil sharpener (something he wanted) and Asher got him a gift card for a golf range + a big bag of pistachios.

All in all, a really wonderful Christmas! It felt so relaxing and laid back that it almost tempts me to just skip Christmas again next year and do another delayed event like this. ha. (Just kidding… I’m sure we won’t. But there were some definite perks!)

I then spent Sunday TAKING DOWN all the Christmas stuff! It was time. I am so relieved to have my house back in order, and I finally feel like it’s really the new year now. And…. it’s January 23rd. Haha.

But I’m feeling this new year! Things are going well I’d say. Never 100%, but overall, I think this year is off to a really solid start. 🙂 Especially happy with my reading + fitness life so far, plus some great strides in my digital organization/ second brain realm.

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for some wonderful gifts! And for a special “Christmas” with the family. ♥