The holiday season

After nearly a week of blog silence, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! My holiday season consisted of 4 family Christmases over the course of one week, not to mention the holiday work parties thrown in for good measure. I very much enjoyed seeing family and exchanging gifts, but all of the holiday hustle and bustle was just a tad bit stressful to manage, especially with multiple families and work schedules to accommodate.

My favorite Christmas celebration this year was the one spent at home with my husband--our first married Christmas. As nice as it was, it certainly wasn't your traditional Christmas! Taylor worked overnight on Christmas Eve but we still wanted to establish some sense of tradition and open our gifts together on Christmas morning. So around 6:45 a.m. I woke up extra early to cook a big pancake-bacon-egg breakfast (which I have never done before), light the Christmas tree, and get everything ready. Taylor arrived home from work about an hour later, and we quickly ate breakfast, chatted about his shift, and opened presents before the drowsiness set in. Taylor gave me a lovely Eucalyptus stoneware bowl and a cool old ladybug brooch, and I gave him an ice cream maker attachment for our stand mixer and a Dremel rotary tool kit. By 8:20 a.m., Taylor couldn't keep his eyes open any longer, so he made his way to bed while I cleaned up all of the dishes and packed up the presents for the next party. Then I took a nap until it was time to leave for Urbana in the afternoon. Less than 24 hours after arriving at my parents' house, we found ourselves back in Cincinnati so that I could make it into work on Sunday evening. Talk about a whirlwind!

It might not have been the most traditional Christmas Day scene, but it ended up working for us. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, I was worried about all of the details and how everything would come together--that our Christmas would be ruined from our jumbled schedules.

But now that it's over, I wouldn't have had it any other way. I started a Christmas Journal so we can look back and remember this and future Christmases for years to come. It wasn't perfect--what holiday really is?--and that's okay. As I reflected on and wrote about 2010, I realized just how fortunate I am not only for my beautiful gifts from family and friends, but for my wonderful husband, adoring kitties, and a house full of love.

I hope the magic and love of the season linger into the new year for you and your family, too!