Friday (12/21) Last day of school before winter break!! We were all really tired but got up and moving pretty quick since everyone was excited about the day. Adrian dropped AJ off at school and then headed to work in his festive Elf shirt. I got the other boys ready and dropped off then went to run the last of my errands before hosting family for the next few days. I finished up and came home to get a few things done before heading into school to volunteer for Daniel's holiday party. I had so much fun serving snacks to all of the kids and talking to them while they ate. When their party was over, I headed home to grab a quick lunch before heading back into the school to volunteer for Zak's holiday party. I again served snacks and read stories to the students while they ate. It was a fun day hanging out with both classes!! When school was done for the day, we headed home to start our winter break!
The boys started to play video games when we got home and I started cleaning up around the house to get ready for my parents who were arriving around dinner time. Adrian got home from work and got Zak ready for wrestling practice. They headed out there while I continued to get the house in order and get dinner ready. When they came home, we decided to eat dinner since my parents plane was a little delayed. They got in soon after we finished eating so they ate and visited with the boys for a bit before we put the boys down for the night. When they were asleep we finally pulled up some of our gifts and got started on our wrapping. We were up later than we intended, but we made a nice dent in our wrapping so hopefully we won't have a super late Christmas Eve.
Saturday (12/22) We all slept in a little after a late night last night. We got up and got ready pretty quickly because Carl, Sarah and the kids were coming over for lunch. We got a few things done around the house and then hung out with family once they got here. We enjoyed a delicious lunch of salads and sandwiches and fresh made crumb cake (Daniel and my mom made it this morning). Carl and his family hung out until about 3pm then headed out to another Christmas party while we stayed here. We watched the OSU basketball game and the NFL games while getting a few things done around the house.
My parents cooked dinner for us which was awesome! They brought kielbasa and homemade pierogies from Florida and it was all delicious. We all ate way too much and were a happy full. Then we loaded up the car and headed out on our annual Christmas light scavenger hunt. Our elf left the list for us this morning and also put himself into a jar so he could join us on the hunt. My mom also joined us and we had a fun time driving around looking at all of the lights in our neighborhood and some surrounding neighborhoods. We found 26 of the 27 items on the list and had a hard time find a "horse." We eventually (maybe) found it in a nativity scene at a local church.
After almost three hours of driving around looking for lights, we came home happy and exhausted. The boys grabbed a quick snack and watched a short show before we got them down to bed. Adrian and I opened our bottle of wine for the night, cleaned up the few things left in the kitchen and wrapped a few more presents. We also enjoyed watching the end of the Chargers/Ravens game. It was a fantastic family day and a great kick off to our winter break!!
Sunday (12/23) We all slept in a little this morning and then got ready to head to church as a family. We enjoyed a beautiful service with lots of great music including a candlelight version of Silent Night. When we came home, we spent the day hanging out together, watching football and cooking. We also made a gingerbread house and gingerbread train that our elf left for us this morning. They were frustrating, as usual, but the boys seemed to have fun. Each year it does get easier because they can do more and they are less focused on trying to eat the candy and icing. It's one of my least favorite traditions but the boys ask to make them every year so we do.
After we finished with the gingerbread decorations, watched the Cowboys win and the Jets lose, we got our dinner together. I made a big turkey dinner with all the sides. While the food was cooking, AJ gave my parents a private trombone concert in the living room. After dinner, we cleaned up and then prepped all of the desserts for tomorrow night. After the boys went to bed, we worked on our wrapping and just about finished everything up. We only have a few gifts to each other to wrap tomorrow night, yay!
Monday (12/24) Merry Christmas Eve! We all had a rough night of sleep last night and were slow moving this morning. But we had to get up and moving to prep dinner for tonight. We had coffee and breakfast and then got to work on the Feast of the Seven Fishes. We spent most of the day cooking and trying to relax because we're all really worn out from the past few days and late nights. My mom wasn't feeling well today, seems to have the stomach bug. Carl, Sarah, Isabelle and Vinnie came over to celebrate with us and Carl and Isabelle also weren't feeling well. It was bad timing but we made the best of the day.
I cooked the Feast of the Seven Fishes and everything came out great!! We ate them slowly thru the day and everyone ate a little bit of everything. When dinner was over, Carl and his family headed home and my parents headed over there to spend the next few nights with them. I'm hoping they all get a good night of sleep and feel better in the morning. We cleaned up a little and then headed outside with the reindeer food that our elf dropped off today for the boys. We sprinkled the food on the lawn and then came back in and watched "Santa Clause is Coming to Town." It was super cute and we all enjoyed it! After we got the boys to bed, we finished our wrapping, set up the gifts and headed to bed. We were super tired after the past few days and know we will probably be up early tomorrow.
Tuesday (12/25) Merry Christmas!! After the boys had us up at 2:30 in the morning, we got them back to bed and then got up at the reasonable hour of 7:30. They were super excited to see all of the gifts under the tree this morning!! They tore thru them and were super excited about all of their gifts. Some of the favorites were the Slingshot Beyblade stadium, Zak's new hoodie, a new camera for Daniel & Let's Go Pikachu for AJ! Adrian and I also got a bunch of fun new games, clothes and kitchen accessories.
After we opened gifts, had breakfast and played for a little, we had to get ready to head up to Carl's house for dinner. We opened more presents there from Carl & his family and my parents. Vinnie was super cute opening his gifts, he was more excited with each gift! The boys loved Isabelle's gift of a ninja course in her basement, they spent a good chunk of their time down there with her. The day passed quickly with lots of family time and good food. I was exhausted after a few late nights so we left a little early and headed to my friend's neighborhood to see around 100 houses with their Christmas lights synced to music. It was a fun way to end an awesome day!!
Wednesday (12/26) We all slept in today and felt much better after a lot of sleep. Since we didn't have our traditional Christmas Day of staying home and playing with all of our new games and toys, we bumped that to today. We played a bunch of our new games including Apples to Apples, Five Nights at Freddy's, Monopoly, Thanos Rising and Teen Titans deck building game. We also played Azul and Machi Koro yesterday before we headed out. I'm happy we got a bunch of new games for Christmas, we're excited for more game nights in our future.
Other than playing games, we just hung out and relaxed. We cleaned up most of our gifts and figured out what needs to be returned. The boys also played with their new Beyblades and the stadiums. Daniel also recorded a bunch of new videos for his YouTube channel. We let the boys stay up a little later and when they finally went to bed Adrian and I opened a bottle of wine and watched a little TV before heading to bed too. We both have to go back to work in the morning but are so thankful we had 5 days off together!!
Thursday (12/27) It was back to work for me and Adrian today, at least for a few days. He got up and headed into work for the full day while I headed to Harcum to teach two Silver Sneakers classes. I had smaller than usual classes but those that were there worked it out and had fun. We all commented how hard the workouts felt, probably because most of us didn't exercise for like a week! When I was finished with my classes I came home and met my parents at the house to hang out with the boys. We played Apples to Apples, Five Nights at Freddy's and Pete the Cat. It was a fun afternoon hanging out at home!
Later in the afternoon we headed downtown to meet up with Carl, Sarah and the kids. We met at the main library to check out the train display and play in the children's section for a bit. None of us had been there since they redid it and it looks great! We had a fun time hanging out and playing for a bit before heading out to the next stop. I took the boys to see the nativity and everyone else headed to Schmidt's. We met them there to enjoy the buffet for dinner. It was my first time and it did not disappoint. We all ate too much and then grabbed creme puffs to go.
My parents headed home with Carl and Sarah and the five of us headed down to the Scioto Mile to see the lights down there. We walked up to the Commons and really enjoyed seeing how pretty downtown looked all decorated for Christmas. We probably would have walked around more but it started raining pretty hard so we made a run for our cars. We headed home and enjoyed our creme puffs before getting the boys down to bed for the night. Adrian and I watched a few comedies while drinking our bottle of wine before heading to bed for the night as well.
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