Wednesday, January 11, 2017

The Holiday Re-Cap

It's January 11th.  2017 is already 11 days old, and I'm just getting to my holiday post now.  Ack!  But better late than never, right??

I love Christmas.  So I'm understandably blue when the season is over.  It's making me sad even to do a "re-cap", because that's like admitting it's in the past.

But, like I said.... January 11th.  No denying it any longer.  It's over.

It was a wonderful holiday season.  For me, it felt like it officially "kicked off" at noon on December 23rd, when the Mountainview gang gathered in the shop for brews and tunes to celebrate.  I hadn't planned on staying long - one beer, I swore - but it turned out to be such a great little party that I stayed well on into the afternoon!  The guys were playing guitar and fiddle and singing, and one beer turned into two, turned into three, turned into four... It was so much fun!!  I missed my planned afternoon nap because of it, but it was worth it.

That evening, I had supper with Ryan, Lindsay, and Sam, while watching Christmas movies, a yearly tradition we have that I so enjoy.  After Linds and I finished "It's a Wonderful Life" (truth: we slept through it. oops!) I was off to my cousin Kayla's, as she and her hubby Ben were hosting an Eve of Christmas Eve party.  Yet again, a wonderful time!  This day was just bursting with Christmassy fun, and I loved every minute of it!!

Christmas Eve day was actually quiet, with it being a Saturday and no plans until evening.  I took my time getting ready during the day, had my traditional viewing of "Miracle on 34th Street", packed up all of my stuff, and headed to my mom's late afternoon.  We had a quick supper before heading to church for a terrific Christmas Eve service.

We had no major plans for after church, so I decided to come up with some games and fun to keep things lively for the kids.  We enjoyed some drinks and snacks while we bobbed for candy canes, played pass the present with oven mitts, enjoyed a few Christmas-themed Mad Libs, and played some Christmas trivia.  We also read "Twas the Night Before Christmas", and passed the book around, each taking a turn at reading a page - it was Caden and Danica's idea to do it that way, and it was really cute to watch them each taking their turns.





Christmas morning, Danica and Grandma were the first ones up - usually I lie on the couch waiting for the kids, but this year, I was wakened when Dan whacked me across the face to get me up. LOL!  Once we were all up, we dove into our favourite Christmas morning breakfast of sticky buns, opened our stockings, then moved on to the gifts that were piled beneath the tree.







The kids were super stoked with what Santa had left for them, and I have to say, I was pretty thrilled too!  I was a lucky girl this year.  I was gifted with a bluetooth speaker, a Josh Donaldson Blue Jays t-shirt, a blanket scarf, a rolling pin, two of the books I need for this year's book club, a new Starbucks travel mug, iTunes gift card, among other things.  I felt very fortunate!

We joined my brother-in-law's family for Christmas dinner that night, and it was so nice.  The turkey dinner was delicious, and it was an evening of laughter and fun.  We are thankful to them for inviting us to join them!

Boxing Day was another great day.  We lazed around the house while the kids played with their new toys.  I read a lot, and napped a lot... we watched hockey, and Mom cooked her turkey, so we had another amazing dinner.  YUM!

The week between Christmas and New Year's seemed to fly by in a blur.  Way too fast for my liking!!!  I had some solid Netflix time, as I binged on The Mindy Project and Scandal, and also got to the theatre to see "Collateral Beauty" and "Sing".  The latter was the movie date I had offered up for our church's fundraising auction back in November, so I had fun taking the winners to McDonalds and to the theatre.  It was a blast!

New Year's Eve is my sister's birthday, and this year she was turning the big 4-0, so I decided to drag her with me to the Legion in town, where there was a New Year's Eve party going on.  Yet again... a blast!  We brought in the New Year with great friends, party hats, glasses of champagne, and noisemakers.  I was SO glad we went!!


New Year's Day, we had a little surprise up our sleeve for Kara's birthday, as we had a few people in for dinner to celebrate her 40th.  We all had a great time visiting and enjoying a delicious potluck supper of ham, tourtiere, scalloped potatoes, beans, etc.  Mom had made an ice cream cake for dessert, and it was a big hit too.  The first day of 2017 was a great one!!






So that's the holiday re-cap...an awesome week off spent with family and friends, and I'm still so sad that it's over!

2 comments:

Stacy said...

I giggled at Caden's bed head!!
Sounds like the perfect Christmas! Glad to hear that the rolling pin was bought and wouldn't be like the Bread machine, I was worried it would be a thing that would be on the list forever just cuz it's not one of those things you think of buying when you are out!

Nicole said...

I put off reading you post because I didn't want it to be over either :)