At the risk of sounding cliché, it is crazy how time flies.
I decided to drop the ball on all things KOHORT in December because of life in
general through the holiday season. Seems I wasn’t up for much in terms of
outings and instead opted for Christmas crafting, cookie baking and snowman
making when the snow finally hit. My little entourage and I became Pinterest
crazy with all the potential all-things-Christmas ideas. I’ve never made so
many crafts in my life in one week, let alone a month. And, in all honesty it
was great. I loved seeing my 3 little munchkins (that includes my 2 children
and the sweet heart I’m caregiving 4 days a week) lined up on their chairs
making masterpiece tree ornaments. Caregiving, although not always easy, has
been a blessing in the last month. It’s brought some balance to my household
with my kids fighting less, laughing more and frequent dance parties to their
latest favourite song, Gangnam style (yes, I went there, and am actually
admitting it).
Today is the 29th and Christmas has now passed.
My husband and I started a new tradition and decided to stay home on
Christmas day for the 1st time. Although I love visiting family and friends who live out of town,
which I’ve done all my life over the holidays, it’s just tougher to do with
kids and enjoy (who can relate?). Little ones have minds of their own, whose
tummies grumble early and bedtime coincides with dessert time for most people.
I wasn’t sure how I would actually feel without being at my parents or the in-laws
once we made the decision not to travel until after Christmas. But in the quick
Christmas day debrief after all presents were opened, played with and some even
forgotten, my hubby and I both felt at peace with our decision. Besides, there
wasn’t any shortage to Christmas celebrations before or after the BIG day
anyway.
This year we hosted a turkey dinner with my family a couple
weeks before Christmas which was really nice. I’m hoping that maybe this
tradition will carry on with my siblings rotating who will host each year (not
that I have any problems hosting myself, I can be a real Martha Stewart when I
want to be). Last year, I hosted a
Christmas Eve supper with a few friends whose families are also not local and
it went so well, we did it again this year the week-end before Christmas. That
was a great time as well, because the kids are all at the age where after
they’ve gotten over the initial shyness, were off running and playing with each
other. It reminded me of when I was little and we’d have Christmas at my
Grandma’s and I’d hang out with all my cousins who were all pretty close in
age. The only thing that would have made our parties better is Euchre or some
other card game after dinner. All in good time though because I know it’s a
matter of a few short years that our guests won’t have to be out the door by 7:30
pm (at the latest – lol), so that we can clean up and get to bed at a decent
hour and not throw off all the little pip squeaks schedules.
Our holidays will always involve travel though. My in-laws
live down near London, ON (which is where I am now) and my father-in-law
doesn’t like driving long distances in the winter. Today, I happily slept in
until 9 am and then spent a better part of my afternoon both napping and laying
in bed contemplating what I might write about in this blog. Essentially, I
should have gotten to the point about…..ohhhhhh…..2 paragraphs ago, but when I
have something or someone on my mind I can get a little long winded. Just ask
my friends whose answering machines get bogged up with my off the wall rambles
about life. You’re smart people in reader land though, so I’m sure you’ve
summed up that it’s been a great Christmas for my family and I. Now, it’s my
time to reflect on the future. Where will we go in 2013? What kind of
resolutions, if any, will I make? How can I make 2013 better than 2012? For now
though I’ll save the questions and answers for later, pour myself another
drink, sit by the cozy fire, and enjoy the peace and quiet of my little ones
sleeping.
Cheers to a most excellent year 2013! And here is hoping the best is yet to come.
