Our Christmas

Am I the only person who looks forward to the day after Christmas? As much as I love the meaning of Christmas, the spirit of giving, and the time with loved ones, I really love the days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve — when the shopping, wrapping, and preparations are done, and the masses slow down. It’s a sweet time of year.

Before I fully settle into this beloved week of mine, I wanted to make sure I document some of the highlights from our celebration of Christmas yesterday.

After food prep and gift wrapping had me up ’til 2:00 a.m., Christmas Day kicked off with strong cups of coffee and hanging in our pajamas. You don’t have to look hard to see all the ‘tired’ on my face.To all the parents out there with kids old enough to get out of their beds and run into your room to wake you up on Christmas morning at ungodly hours — SALUTE. I’m grateful this little guy is held captive by a crib. We’ve basically made Jameson wear these pajamas for the past two weeks, and they’ve failed to get any less amusing. After some prep for later in the day, we headed to Jordan’s brother’s house for breakfast and to exchange gifts with his immediate family. And Jameson stayed in his Santa pjs, because as I said, we’re very amused.

It was all about the kids (Jameson and his two older cousins, Jocelyn and Jayden), and their excitement was contagious.

We gave our niece a game set from Osmo, so she can learn coding. And we gave our nephew, who is obsessed with animals, a giant shark blanket that he can fit inside.He quickly jumped inside.And Jameson, who already wants to do everything my nephew does, was quite amused by the whole thing.After breakfast, we returned home to finish our cooking and change clothes. Some little guy decided to show us up with his cute outfit.He was, however, nice enough to let us get in a photo with him, as long as he got to hold onto one of his Christmas toys (although he does seem pretty skeptical). We’re pretty lousy at getting family photos together, so I’m just happy to have some form of documentation of the three of us.We headed to Queens for Christmas dinner with Jordan’s extended family and had a great time catching up with people, reading the Christmas story, eating, remembering Jordan’s grandmother, and going through some of her belongings. Jordan left with a beautiful black and white photograph of his grandparents when they were our age. And I left with one of his grandmother’s bibles (with accompanying handwritten notes) and a vintage handbag.

Jameson left with a belly full of those veggie straws (forget the Christmas feast), and no energy to give. We pulled him out of the car, and he had no intention of waking up for anything. Here he is:It was a full and joyous Christmas.

And we’re ready for a not-so-full and restful week ahead.