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Friday, January 4, 2019

Christmas Recap and 2019 Resolutions


Hi friends! It’s been a while! I hope you all had the best holiday. A little recap of ours, and some of my 2019 resolutions, below!

Our week leading into vacation kicked off with the stomach flu. First August (Sunday), then me (Tuesday), then Oskar (Thursday), which almost made me glad to get it out of the way. It’s an inevitable plague every year, and I knew it was only time. Luckily, we got a very mild version this time around. Matt was the last man standing and somehow never got it at all. The real wrench in all of this was my sister, Anna, coming home to surprise the boys. We had grandiose plans to wrap her up and have them open the box at our house, but we kept her as far away from the stomach flu germs as we could and met at a neutral ground for their reunion. Oskar jumped right into her arms, but August, who is always super shy with people at first, looked straight down to the ground and didn’t know exactly what to do. He then pulled his pants down to his ankles and stood there. Matt says we all express joy in different ways…

The next day, all of us squeezed into one car to make the trip to Matt’s parents house, where the cousins (ages 2, 3, 4, 5) played the days away and exchanged some presents. We came home the evening before Christmas eve to get everything ready for the next day, which is when we celebrate. I think I was more excited than the boys.

 August got this fireman costume and truck that he loved.

Christmas Eve morning was slow and magical, with rice porridge, saunas for all, and fresh and clean and giddy little boys who couldn’t wait for Santa to come. We had bloody marys and appetizers, and before we knew it, heard a knock at the door. Santa came in with a few big bags of gifts, stomping through the house and Ho-Ho-Hoing . The boys sang to him and sat on his lap (again, Oskar more eagerly than August) and opened up their most wished for toys this year. Oskar got a Batbot, his dream come true, and August got a Transformer—both what they had written at the top of their lists to Santa that we mailed out at the beginning of December. 



The rest of the day was spent slowly opening gifts from mama, dada, and others, and playing with everything new and exciting they got. Matt and I made prime rib for dinner—our first time—and it turned out just right. Sigh of relief. Nobody starved. We all cuddled up on the couch with Irish coffees (or milks) and watched Home Alone before bed time, everybody laughing, but nobody more than Matt's dad. Gets him every single time.



Christmas morning brought some more little things in the boys’ stockings and then we headed to morning church, where August loudly declared “good job, Jesus!” after mass had ended.

The rest of the week, we had lazy, slow days at home, shopping some after Christmas sales, but mostly just doing nothing. The very best. We braved a winter light show one night with the million other people who also decided to do so, but it always ends up being worth it.
 

We rang in the New Year (note: at 7pm) with all of our parent friends and their littles, who all played and ran around in their pajamas. The adults drank wine and worked on a 1,000 piece puzzle because #weold. We had some fireworks in the backyard in the pouring down rain, and the bigger kids were so excited to help. 



Now that everything is over and behind us, I always find myself in such a funk this time of year, with an empty pit in my stomach. Anna flew home, the decorations are coming down, and we’re back to the school and work grind. Another year over. The days are still dark and cold. The boys keep asking when Anna will be back and when it will be Christmas again, and I feel the same way. Their elf on the shelf went back to the North Pole, too, and I miss the boys running down the stairs to find him, even at the crack of dawn. Our elf leaves a letter to the boys the night that he leaves saying that he kissed him on the nose while they were sleeping to say goodbye. Both boys are totally in awe of this, and always read his letter over and over again that is still taped up to our refrigerator. 



As far as the new year goes, I’m trying to look ahead and be positive, and part of that has been to work on resolutions that I really want to stick to. They look like this.

  •  Start yoga again. I used to go all the time, but after the boys were born (note: 2.5 years ago now), I never felt I had time to go again. Most classes are held during my work day or right at the boys bedtimes, but now I found a class that works really well with our schedules and immediately signed up.
  • Work on my core strength. Matt and I got really into a free app called Sworkit last year and we’re jumping back on board. After the boys are in bed, we turn on the TV and do a 15-30 minute core workout together on the living room floor.
  • Read the book Parenting with Love and Logic and hopefully apply those principles. Less yelling, less nagging, more consistency. That’s the goal.
  • Travel to a country I haven’t been to. Anna and I took a sister trip to Sweden last year that was so good for the soul, so I’m hoping we can make that happen again, this time to either the Netherlands or Ireland (which I've been to for work, but didn't have that much time to do all of the toursity things).
If I can cross those off the list in a year, I’ll be a happy gal. They’re very achievable, but will make a big impact in my little world, and that’s just what I’m going for.
 

Tell me friends, how was your holiday? What did you do to ring in the new year? I’d love to hear in the comments, below! Wishing you all the happiest, healthiest, 2019. And as always, thank you for reading along.

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