Halfway holidays

December has been full of festivities of one kind and another.  We did school up until a week before Christmas.

Lizzy in particular baked a ton of Christmas cookies this year, and took the lead on decorating them.  Ada made plenty as well, so we’re swimming in sugar now.

Also the week before Christmas, we squeezed in a Halfway Day celebration.  

And the next day, Caleb and Ada, along with their fellow piano students, serenaded us with a Christmas recital in the lit-up park.

Caleb did excellently in his first recital.

And he got to blow off steam for a few minutes on the playground afterwards.

Then, once we had finished out the week of school, we packed up the family and headed to a cabin in Tennessee.  

We spent the week cozied up playing games, watching Christmas movies, snacking, and enjoying the private outdoor hot tub. 

The basement game room was very cool, with a foosball table, a pool table, air hockey, an arcade console, and a row of theater seats in front of the ginormous TV.

There were beauty spas, pedicures, hair styling, fuzzy blankets, Parcheesi, lounging…and some pretty fierce competition.  

One evening we were visited by this fuzzy little guy right next to our deck.  Watching him, we were reminded why you definitely do not climb a tree to escape a bear…he leapt as gracefully as a songbird into the branches, even if the tree was almost breaking by the time he poked his head through the canopy.

We returned home the day before Christmas Eve, with just enough time to wrap all the presents that arrived via Amazon while we were gone, decorate the last of the cookies, and get all the Christmas brunch dishes stowed in the fridge.

 

Merry Christmas!

Really good days

The truth of course is that if people really were as happy as they look on the Internet, they wouldn’t spend so much damn time on the Internet, because no one who’s having a really good days spends half of it taking pictures of themselves.

Fredrik Backman, Anxious People

I’m spending this December going to Christmas parties at which I eat too many cookies; struggling to keep my head in the school game; half-wishing I would wake up sick so I don’t have to decide which events to go to; then managing life when we actually do wake up sick; completing an inordinate number of trips to the doctor for all the appointments, the clinic for all the shots, and the pharmacy for all the prescriptions; panicking about the incomplete Christmas shopping and the dreaded supply chain; and feeling my heart swell with pride and gratefulness that my kids can get themselves to church on time (in nice clothes!) when one parent or other is sick.

Also reading really good books by Fredrik Backman that I don’t actually have time to read.

Last year I discovered the life-changing holiday magic of having big kids who can set up and decorate the Christmas tree while Jason and I watch.

This year it went up even another notch, as we sent the kids to the store by themselves to purchase a Christmas tree, after which they drove it home, hauled it in, set it up, strung the lights, and hung the ornaments—neatly, without fighting hardly at all, and evenly distributed over the tree, not all bunched in one knee-high spot.

Big kids are the best.

Although I wish I spent a little more time blogging, there’s much to be said for a life so full that I can’t find the time.  It’s not all glorious “really good days”—sometimes it’s mumbling excuses to my kids waiting with their schoolwork while I go lie down on my face.  Sometimes it’s googling “covid symptoms” or “should I stay home if my family is sick” or “quarantine guidelines” for the fifty-seventh time.  

But yeah, sometimes it’s sneaking a book when I have more responsible things to do, and sometimes it’s just enjoying my kids.  

And sometimes it’s something in between, struggling through schoolwork while the bunny hops around our feet bringing good cheer to all.

And even if that’s not a “really good day”….it’s not so bad, after all.