We enjoyed extra time off before Christmas this year since break started after school ended on the 17th. A full week off to bake cookies, run errands, wrap gifts, and clean! Oh boy!
There was a bit of drama before Christmas as Josh came down with Covid and would get out of quarantine on the 22nd. We all decided to stick with the plan to do Christmas Eve over at Scott's parents' house, assuming neither Jackie nor the girls got sick. It was a scaled down version of Christmas Eve again since Sue is battling ovarian cancer and can't risk getting sick from others. So, it was only immediate family.
We packed up the car, baked cheesy potatoes and broccoli casserole in the oven, and headed over around 3pm. We sat around and socialized for a bit, let the kids open their gifts, had dinner, did the adults' gift exchange, had dessert, and then played euchre. Traditionally Scott plays poker with his dad, uncle, and cousins, but since it was a smaller group again this year we opted for euchre.
We got home after 8:30pm. The boys put out cookies and milk for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer. We read "The Night Before Christmas" on the couch together and then they were off to bed! We figured it would be an early morning and we were right! The boys were up at 6:50am!
The boys were excited to see that Santa had brought them what they wanted! They ripped through their gifts and stockings. Luna wasn't too impressed with gifts this year, but enjoyed both her pig ear and bully stick (unbeknownst to us that she got both...) under the dining room table while the living room was a complete disaster. It was a good morning! I made a breakfast casserole with eggs, sausage, and sausage gravy in the oven while the boys started building Legos and Playmobil sets.
We made it to 11:00am mass and we were sad to see it only about 3/4 of the way full. It was a bittersweet mass as one of the priests had passed away earlier in the week. But, Father B. continued his tradition of reading a children's Christmas story and singing his Christmas song. The boys were pumped to get ornaments when mass was over (it was a ceramic spider's web since the story was about a mother spider).
My parents came over around 1pm and we had appetizers and socialized for a bit before we did a Facetime call with Eric and Ana to open each other's gifts. After the call we opened more gifts. Ron came around 3pm and we were busy getting dinner put together. We did a beef tenderloin, twice baked potatoes, asparagus, salad, and rolls for dinner and it was tasty! We played one of Sean's new games he got for Christmas, Throw Throw Burrito and ate cookies and ice cream for dessert. It was a fun evening!
And just like that, all the hustle and bustle of Christmas came to an end. It's crazy to think of how much preparation goes into making the holiday season special and how quickly it goes by! We are grateful we were able to spend it with immediate family, near and far, and that everyone was healthy enough to be together. Here's hoping for more normalcy to our holidays in 2022...
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