A Tale of Christmas Past

So, Christmas. I’m so totally over it. Our tree and other decorations came down on New Year’s Day, and by then I was DYING to rip it all out. But for the sake of posterity, I am going to take a little trip down memory lane, to a day that seems like it was months ago…

Somehow we made it through Christmas without ever taking a family photo of the three of us. :( Whoops. But we did get some pics of us with Nora on Christmas Eve while we were all dressed up and looking nice.

We were hosting family on Christmas Day so after Nora went to bed we had a lot to do in preparation. It kind of sucked a little bit, honestly. Last year, we spent Christmas Eve on the couch with a movie and wine, with the only “to-do” to play Santa—and that’s fun.

We did get to play Santa again this year, of course. We laid everything out and looked forward to bringing Nora downstairs for the magic the next morning.

While Nora seemed to understand Santa a bit this year, she still didn’t really GET him, I don’t think. Because leading up to Christmas we kept asking her, “Do you want Santa to come and bring you presents?” she would say, “No.” So, either she doesn’t fully understand Santa or she doesn’t understand presents. :)

For the first time in Nora’s little life, she did NOT have an ear infection on Christmas. Which meant that we all got a normal amount of sleep on Christmas Eve. Hallelujah!

When we woke up in the morning, we tried to get Nora excited but again… she just didn’t completely understand. But sure enough, as soon as we walked into the family room, she got the sweetest little smile on her face. Because those gifts—she knew they were for her. :)

I thought she would go nuts over Woody, Buzz, and Jessie, but instead she immediately went to the easel and began to draw on the chalkboard. Our little artist.

She definitely understood opening presents this year. She had a pretty good handle on the concept at her birthday party in September, so I was not surprised.

After we had our own Christmas morning at our house, we headed over to my mom’s for Christmas with my family. We first made and ate breakfast, then got started on gifts there.

And then it was onto the next. We had to rush home to get Nora down for a nap and get ourselves showered before my sister-in-law and her family arrived to spend the afternoon with us.

And then there were more presents. Oy!

In the middle of all this, my dad arrived from Virginia to spend the week with us. And then Michael’s sister left to drive back home and my family came over to join all of us (including Michael’s parents and other sister) for homemade lasagna that we put together.

It was exhausting, y’all. I was tremendously thankful to be able to spend the day with ALL of our family, but it was truthfully a lot for one day. That’s probably why it took me like a week to fully recover from it. :) I don’t know what next year will bring—and don’t want to think about it right now—but I’m pretty sure I need the next 11 months to build up the energy to do it all over again!

But it was a merry Christmas indeed!