This is already feeling like a long time ago but I hate to skip over our Winter holidays.
We had a lovely 2 weeks off from school for the girls and Peter. Working retail as I do, the weeks leading up to Christmas are some of my busiest. Peter and the kids got out pretty early this year so had a solid week off before Christmas actually occurred. In years past, this has been a very stressful time for me, trying to juggle work and personal life and getting things ready for the holiday but I’m happy to say that I didn’t feel stressed out this year. It helped to be aware of and to plan for stress. I knew I would not have extra time to get things done in that week before Christmas so I did all of my gift shopping and as much wrapping as I could beforehand. It definitely helped that I now have regular days off while both girls are in school to do such things. Peter and I spent an evening drinking rum and egg nog and watching Die Hard (his favourite Christmas movie) and wrapping presents. Initially I had scheduled two days off for myself before Christmas Eve but with snow and co-worker illnesses, they didn’t end up happening. I did, however, stick to having a morning off and the girls and I had a crafting morning with some mom friends and their kids. Plus, I ended up having Christmas Eve off which was a very pleasant surprise at the end of a long week.
The week also felt extra Christmassy because we had a lot of snow!
While this didn’t necessarily help me at work (a lot of our expected deliveries were delayed), it made for the perfect week for Peter, Pearl, and Rose to be cozy at home. They went sledding, played in our yard, and spent days in their pyjamas. They were all very relaxed!
The rain washed away most of the snow before Christmas Day but we were kind of glad of it by then since it was making travel plans so complicated for so many around us. We started our Christmas celebrations with our church Christmas Eve service. Peter’s parents and his brother joined us. We had. a quiet evening at home with Chinese food and the traditional opening of new jammies. Pearl and Rose wanted to have a sleep-over (yes, they already share a room) and so fell asleep together on Christmas Eve in Pearl’s bed.
Christmas morning was everything you might expect in a household with a very excited five and seven year old. The unexpected hits in the gift sector turned out to be the last minute stuffed animals we found for the girls. A Beaver for Rose (Justin’s always wanted a son, apparently) and a Honey Badger for Pearl.
Another family Christmas tradition is cinnamon buns for breakfast, something Rose checked that I remembered several times in the weeks before.
The rest of our Christmas Day was spent with Peter’s family – his other brother arrived that day with his family so there was a lots of cousin fun and chaos. We had a delicious dinner and all spent the night at Peter’s parents’ house.
A few days later we headed into Vancouver for Christmas #2 with my family. I know many people had disrupted travel plans and a lot of stress as they tried to get places this season so I won’t complain about our experience. All I’ll say is that it normally takes about 30 minutes to get from the ferry terminal to my family’s home but on that day it took closer to two and a half hours. We were thankful to be greeted with hot apple cider and snacks. And a washroom!
After more visiting and festivities we headed home in time for New Year’s Eve. I don’t think Peter and I have gone out for NYE since 2010 but this year we were invited to a dinner party with three other couples and we had a really fun time ringing in 2023. We did decide in the days after that we are probably too old to be staying up until 2am though!
Peter’s parents very kindly took the girls for a sleepover while we partied and made a fun little party for the four of them. Pearl and Rose gladly took the chance to dress up in their favourite clothes. (I found that Rainbow Unicorn dress at a thrift store this summer and Rose wears it as much as she possibly can!)
I was back at work on Monday and Peter and the kids back to school on Tuesday and so we’ve spent this week re-adjusting to normal life.
Do you get time off over the winter holidays? Did you go anywhere? Do you celebrate NYE big or do you barely make it to midnight?
Karissa Reads Books 
Oh, those snowy pictures are lovely! I’m slightly jealous because my city was one of very few places in the whole country that didn’t get snow in the run up to Christmas (just lots of sleet and freezing fog). It sounds like you had a lovely break with a good mix of relaxing and celebrating!
It used to be very unusual for us to have so much snow or have it this time of year. But it’s now the second year in a row we’ve had snow at Christmas so the weather is definitely changing. There was a lot of worry here that it would turn into freezing rain and I know some spots nearby had real problems with ice but we were pretty lucky overall.
Oh, a baby beaver! How lovely! The big hit with my oldest niece turned out to be a blanket my mom got her with a picture of the family dog on it. My niece kept wearing the blanket around all day like a cape, and she’s 13, ha! Maybe kids are more into animals now?
And I must say, I can just about taste cinnamon buns now and am mad at you for it, lol.
That’s so sweet! I think I would have loved something like that too at that age!
For about two weeks before Christmas Rose kept bringing up Christmas breakfast, just making sure I hadn’t forgotten that it needed to be cinnamon buns.
What a sweetheart ❤
She’s very food-motivated!