We had a lovely Christmas this year. Here is a quick recap.
Christmas Eve
On Tuesday I took the 12yo and his friend to a trampoline park to jump off the pre-Christmas jitters. The 15yo had two friends come over, and one of them spent the night. The husband had been stuck working from home on Monday and Tuesday because City Hall still didn’t have power from the outage that started on Saturday, but on Christmas Eve he went to work. I spend the morning wrapping some last minute things and packing everything (or so I thought) into the car.
The 15yo’s friend left around 11:30. The husband got off earlier than expected, but the weather had cleared and I suggested he take advantage of the extra time and unexpected sun to walk home. Meanwhile I did a Sim 60 Bike Boor Camp and then took a shower.
We decided to take advantage of the break in weather to walk the two blocks of crazy lights near my parents’ house. We got there before it got dark, but by the time we left everything was on. It starting pouring right as we pulled out of our parking space so we couldn’t have timed it better.
Back at the their house we ate pozole (a Christmas Eve tradition started by our friend that passed away this year) and the kids each opened a present. I choose them (I think this is not how we usually do it?) and made sure the 15yo opened the pair of Twilight 20th Anniversary Crocs I snagged by watching the site for over a month waiting for them to be back in stock and the 12yo opened the Stranger Things demagorgon control holder that he loves and that is absolutely hideous.
We ended our time at my parents’ house with a game of Super Scrabble, in which my husband destroyed everyone else by 100 points.
At home we watched the original How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which we always watch on Christmas Eve. It’s the only Christmas movie we reliably watch every year.
Christmas Day
We got a late start to Christmas Day because everyone slept in until almost 10am! I do not miss little kids waking me up super early on Christmas Day!
Usually we spend Christmas morning with the in-laws, but they are still in Texas so we went straight to my parents’ house around 11:30am.
We opened presents for a while. As is always the case, I wanted everyone to take turns so I didn’t miss anyone’s reactions, and yet everyone was opening presents at the same time.
I forgot two of the 12yo’s presents at home. I felt so bad! One was a few pairs of Nike Tech pants, that he ended up not even liking. They were his biggest present (they are expensive!) so I felt bad that he didn’t want them. Thank goodness I also got him so Underarmor fleece pants at the outlets last month!
We surprised the 15yo with a giant Batman The Animated Series LEGO set she really wanted. It was super expensive so both grandparents helped us get her that. She was so excited to get it that she actually cried. It was pretty fun to see.
After lunch we watched A Muppet Christmas Carol, which was a lot of fun. We are a big Muppets family – The Great Muppet Caper is maybe our favorite family movie – and while we’ve seen this one before, it’s been a while. After the movie we packed up the car and headed home. We all kind of did our own things that evening. I spent most of that time packing for our Death Valley trip…
Boxing Day
I honestly thought about taking the tree down the day after Christmas, but I had so much to get done before our trip that I didn’t attempt it. Also, the husband and I were going to see a movie at 5:20, so there wasn’t as much time on Friday as I would have liked.
The day after Christmas is always pretty low key at our house. I braved Costco to take back a (broken) present and stock up on some stuff we needed (I refused to go the week before Christmas). The husband and I did some food planning, and we made a list for what he needed to get the next day. The 12yo had a friend come over to spend the night and the 15yo built some of her giant LEGO set (and watched a couple episodes). She and I also put up two of the floating shelves she got for Christmas, so she could clear off her desk enough to put the big LEGO set while she was building it. We also finally put some art work in frames and hung them. They’ve only been sitting around the house since April… Sigh. I really love her wall now, and I’m so glad we got all that done.
I barely got a workout in before and husband and I headed to the movie. We saw Resurrection at the Roxie. It is… something! I have never seen a movie like it, and that is saying something because my husband insists we watch a lot of really strange movies. It was definitely visually stunning, and I’m glad we got to see it on the big screen. The fact that we can see a movie while the 12yo has a friend over (the 15yo “babysat” for us) was pretty cool too!
Saturday and Sunday…
Saturday the husband and I picked up the camper van! And the kids and I saw Cirque du Soleil’s ECHO with my parents (that was their big Christmas present). Picking up the van took a lot longer than expected and we were almost late to ECHO, but it all worked out. ECHO was amazing! The kids and my parents really loved it and I’m so glad we went.
Sunday we are packing up the camper van and heading to Death Valley! I am so stressed out that it’s going to be stolen from in front of our house (where I was so relieved we were able to park it), I hope I can get some sleep tonight. I’m the only one who can drive the van, and it’s over nine hours to get to Death Valley so I better head to bed. Sorry it took me so long to post. I hope I can get a recap of our trip up pretty quickly after we get home!
What a fun holiday! So nice that you live close enough to your parents that you could go back and forth. The 15-year-old’s Lego set sounds epic! Have a fun time in Death Valley.
Wonderful pictures as always and it sounds like a grand Christmas and aftermath! So looking forward to the current Death Valley excursion and adventure. Hope you also get some rest and relaxation time in for you.
Hi friend, have a great time in Death Valley! Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Wow, the houses in your neighborhood are going all out. How fun! And I love that you spent both Christmas Eve and Day with your parents… is opening a present a Christmas Eve tradition? You know in Germany, we open ALL presents on Christmas Eve…. sometimes, when Jon and I celebrate here, we split opening presents between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but we didn’t have many this year, so we did it all Christmas Eve LOL
Sounds like your kids got pretty spoiled. I hope you got some fun things too! Have a great trip with the van! I heard Death Valley was partially closed due to the rain, so I hope you got in ok!
This sounds wonderful! Those houses with the crazy lights- at first I thought those were photos of a Christmas village or something- no, those are people’s HOUSES. That’s really cool. And I know what you mean- photos never do something like that justice. But it still looks amazing.
I love all those presents piled under the tree! And I love that your daughter got the Lego she wanted so much- my son still gets Legos for Christmas and there have been some years where he got super big sets that he loved.
I hope you’re having a great trip. I can’t wait to hear all about it!
That neighborhood of lights is fantastic. Do people have to agree to a light display before they move in? She cried when she opened her gift? Well done you, finding her the thing she is clearly so crazy about. I hope your trip to Death Valley went well. I’m chuckling at the looking up of clown school during intermission. So funny.
We ALWAYS joke about what the Christmas like part of the contract looks like when people buy a house on these two blocks! Do the real estate agents at least bring photos so they can understand what they are getting into?! It’s totally nuts.
And the 15yo is still talking about clown school! She really wants to do it! Hey, I’m not going to stop her. I think it would be awesome if she became a clown…