New Years and the Week Between

Best week of the year!

I loved 

🌟slow dark quiet still mornings ~ I got up around 6:00 every day when my body was ready to get up

🌟my morning routine ~ breakfast, hot tea brewing, Bible Prayers Devotionals with tea, a long work out

🌟2 mile power walk after lunch each day with Scott ~ I love the brisk cold and have all the gear to stay warm

🌟puttering and planning around the house ~ ideas to decorate

and B E S T  of all.. .

🌟our cozy family evenings ~ each day I made a plate of Christmas cookies (I bake all December and freeze as I go) - we watched movies, talked, played games. 

This week filled my heart enough to get to summer. 

We did venture out for one special night. 

For Christmas we gave my Dad tickets to Irving Berlin's White Christmas at The Goodspeed. Abigail got a ticket too on Christmas morning. So a few evenings after Christmas we picked my Dad up and brought him out to dinner and then the show. 

This is the Goodspeed... 

My Dad with Abigail just after we finished eating dinner and were on our way to the show. 

The Gelston House (Inn and Restaurant is across the street from The Goodspeed and it was so charming and decorated for Christmas in there... so pretty! 

There were piles of snow everywhere and it made it that much more charming. 

What a special evening. 

New Years Eve

New Years Eve started with a lovely breakfast in our dining room. 

I didn't take any pictures of the food but I served: 

🌟cheesy scrambled eggs with chives

🌟homemade cinnamon rolls ~ it's taken me years to get a recipe down and I finally got it! 

🌟fruit salad 

🌟hot Christmas coffee and a pot of Holiday tea

🌟snow globe sparkly drinks 

I might not have any food pictures but I sure took a lot of picture of the table set. 

Right after we were done eating I ran around the house and took a few quick unstaged messy pictures to remember how our home felt that week. I do love the look of a messy cooking kitchen. 

We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and then the rest of New Years Eve was

🌟5:00 Mass ~ vigil for the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

🌟fireworks 

🌟out to dinner at Butterfly (a cozy, fancy Chinese restaurant) 

🌟home to change into pjs and play new games 

Christmas Day

How lucky am I that I still get to go to my parent's house on Christmas Day? I am counting my blessings for sure! 

We missed my brother Trent, his wife Jackie and our girls cousins... 

We had a simple dinner and yummy homemade Christmas desserts. It was perfect. 

 

Holding on to Christmas ~ a few tips

In the Catholic liturgical year, Christmas begins on Christmas Eve and last until the Epiphany on January 6. I've had years when I've wanted to take down all of Christmas by New Years Eve to have a clean fresh start, and I've had years when I've wanted it to last a bit longer. Usually, by the time I go back to school on January 2nd it can feel a little annoying to come home from being in my classroom all day to seeing Santa things here and there. But winter and the dark is so so long! I'm debating this year what I want to do. I do have a few things that help make that Christmassy feeling last longer... 

❤ I have a little cleaning schedule I keep and after I'm done for the day with the bathrooms or dusting, changing sheets and laundry, etc (whatever the chores I've set for that day are) I like to turn on all of the Christmas tree lights, and anything twinkly we happen to have including all of the outdoor lights and candles in the windows. It really sets the stage for a cozy, relaxing evening during this vacation week. 

❤ Each evening after dinner I take some Christmas cookies ~ a few of each kind {I made 7 different kinds} and I put them on a covered Christmas cookie plate for us to enjoy later on the couch. Being all together and relaxing in our family room is a vacation only thing ~ for us it feels decadent and wonnnnnderful! Having a cookie or two and a pot of tea makes it still feel like Christmas

❤ I planned a Christmassy outing. It was actually the gift this year to my Dad ~ tickets to a musical! My Dad, Abigail, and I went. It was magical and so Christmassy. We saw the most amazing musical - A Christmas Story. The musical is nothing like the movie. It's heartwarming, charming, cozy, funny, delightful. I didn't want it to end! We actually got to sit next to the lead's Dad (Ralphie is the character's name) and got to meet the star after the show! It was so much fun to get dressed up in our Christmas clothes and go to the theatre! 

Here is a link to the The Goodspeed Opera House. And here is a little bit about the show we saw (here too) 

❤ We went to Mass today. It was the Feast of the Holy Family. I didn't take any photos there but the church looked magnificent. The choir sang all Christmas carols. It was so lovely. 

More ideas coming soon! 

Christmas Day

Tradition 

Cousins

Grandparents

Uncles

all that we love, know, wait for...

Arrival

My brothers, my parents

Feasting 

Opening 

Anna gave my Dad a copy of her first novel. 

The happiest mess from up above. 

Dessert 

We reenacted the cousin picture from about 5 years ago... 

It sure was a merry afternoon and night!