pa-jammy
At 6am on Christmas morning, we got on a flight to the Dominican Republic and met up with 12 other family members for a vacation.
I could go through what we did every day, but really it was “put on bathing suit, go to breakfast, sit by pool, get a mojito, go to lunch, go in ocean, get a pina colada, go back to pool, go to dinner, go to bed” with a few random activities sprinkled in.
We had a nice Christmas. Quiet. Also, 14 year old boys are very hard to shop for.
As usual, I took them out individually to shop (how many years have we been doing this? I’ll have to go back and look) which was lovely. It was right on the cusp of Omicron taking off, so we were able to eat inside this time (I just remember last year sitting in the parking lot of Five Guys, which just isn’t quite the same.)
We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner – steak. Yum!
Then it was time to read The Night Before Christmas and take the stocking pic.
I was quite proud that I didn’t have much to wrap that night, I’d gotten it all done. But I did spend much of the day finishing George’s present, a collared shirt with fabric from Spoonflower with keyboard keys all over it because he’s a big ol’ nerd.
And don’t you know, I didn’t take any pictures while we were opening gifts. Just being present (no pun intended.)
The boys got a new chair to sit in while rotting their brains on video games, and some clothes, and cases and cords and other electronics-adjacent accessories and all in all they seemed happy with their gifts.
I got a sous vide thingy, and a Ziggy puzzle, and a necklace, and a new Kindle, and some Schitt’s Creek things, and so all in all, I think I did the best of all, but I might be biased.
That Ziggy puzzle is really really really hard, btw.
We had the traditional eggnog French toast for breakfast, and I started drinking mimosas (we had a lot of orange juice, what can I say) and then we all took the traditional Christmas morning COVID tests (all negative) and then Grandee and Larry came over (also negative) and we ate air-fried turkey (yum) and cornbread dressing and spinach and homemade bread (my mom and I both made some and the boys preferred my mom’s but that’s fine) and cheesecake for dessert.
So that was our Christmas, and it was low-key and, oh, 80 degrees, so that part sucked, but otherwise, was really nice.
Pre-Christmas:
Our tradition of me taking each of the boys shopping and out to eat individually looked a little different this year. We weren’t going to leisurely peruse stores for gifts, and we weren’t going to be eating inside any restaurants. But we still had fun.
Miles and I hit Target and then Five Guys. Is there anything more depressing than eating burgers on a gray, cold day at an outdoor table next to the parking lot and a busy commercial thoroughfare? I guess there is but I don’t want to hear about it. At least the burgers were delicious and Miles wasn’t complaining.
Oliver and I had a similar journey, but his requested meal was Popeye’s, so we had no choice but to bring our chicken sandwiches home. I was not sad about that. There are no photos of this jaunt.
Linus and I went to have brunch at Tartine, which has a lovely outside patio. One could say he lucked out. They have the most delicious baked eggs in brioche, which I can never not get. Yum.
Christmas Eve was pretty quiet. We had some incredibly delicious steaks that Kristina and Mike sent us. I was terrified of overcooking them, so maybe I went in the opposite direction (well, not for me – there’s no such thing as undercooking a steak to me) but no one complained.
Drool.
Steak is our traditional Christmas Eve dinner, and we were able to partake in most of our other Christmas Eve traditions as well. Like…making the boys put on their Christmas stockings to show how much they’ve grown.
(I made them sit in front of the fire. Hee hee)
The first time I made them do this, they were much smaller.)
And we read The Night Before Christmas…
No one got a very good night’s sleep that night. The smoke detector right outside the bedrooms started chirping at 4am. Delightful! It took me forever to get back to sleep. At least the boys let me sleep until 7. Zzzz.
Presents!
The boys got a gaming PC, or rather, all of the parts to build one. George put it together with their help later that day. They were surprised and thrilled with that gift. I got a giant Ziggy blanket (among other things) so I can’t complain. (Also a big pack of my very favorite socks from Kiki, which may sound lame was is absolutely not.)
Our oven broke sometime earlier this month, I can’t even remember when, so I decided I’d get a ham and cook it in my instant pot. That plan didn’t go well, so I gave the ham away and decided to do a charcuterie board instead on this gorgeous board that Steph MADE me! She MADE this! Isn’t it gorgeous?!?!
I was able to heat up the bread on the grill, which I might always do now. It was so good.
And that was about it for Christmas. It was quiet, but it was good.
In a few days, I’ll have to take down my paper Christmas village until next year. Maybe next year I’ll get a snowman that’s more to scale. Or maybe this village is being terrorized by a twenty foot tall snow monster. Who knows?
Man, Christmas came fast this year, didn’t it? Stupid late Thanksgiving. In spite of the lack of time, it was still a wonderful day. So far (I mean, only 3 weeks in), the age of 12 is wonderful – there was no whining or complaining or anything this year. Well, very little.
As usual, I took all three boys out shopping by themselves for their brothers. First was Miles. He picked out gloves for Linus and pants for Oliver from H&M. And a shirt for himself that I told him to forget we were buying. After we shopped, we had sushi for lunch.
Linus was up next, and we headed to Baton Rouge for our shopping. I was meeting up with two dear friends (I don’t want to say old since they’re my age, but Kristie and I have been friends since we were 12, and Ann and I were freshman roommates in college.) So good to see them! Again, sushi for lunch. And later, Five Guys for dinner.
Linus got Miles gloves (cute) and Oliver a charger and cable for his iPod. He also helped me pick out an outfit for Miles from me and George. (Miles only asked for shoes and clothes for Christmas.)
Finally on Monday, Oliver and I headed out. We got all of our shopping done at Marshall’s and TJ Maxx, which are now Oliver’s favorite stores. He got Linus an Adidas backpack and Miles a Saints shirt. We did not have sushi, thank goodness. We went to Five Guys instead.
On Tuesday I had sewing to do – I had bought team fabric for each of the boys’ favorite soccer teams, and I needed to finish them up, but I couldn’t do it while they were home, so I had George take them out for a bit. Later we had steak for dinner and we watched Klaus (good!) and read The Night Before Christmas before I tucked the boys in.
Christmas morning was gray but the boys were pretty happy with their presents. Linus was thrilled with his Saints jersey (I was pretty excited because I bought it before he put it on his list) and they loved their gifts from each other and Kiki and Santa. It was a good morning. We had eggnog French toast and bacon and I had mimosas for breakfast.
Oh, and I got excellent presents, which is of course the most important things. Two pairs of earrings I wanted and a gift certificate to a local glass studio where I’ll get to make something! So fun! I’ve always wanted to do that. And the boys picked out a glass penguin from the studio as well. I haven’t named him yet. Hmm.
Also fabric and tea and the softest scarf from Nepal (where Kiki and Mike went in the fall.)
More pics of presents and whatnot:
We went to the pub for Christmas lunch, and then came home and chilled for the rest of the day. All in all, a lovely Christmas (even though of course it will never compare to 2016.)
You know what’s funny? I was going to try to blog every day of my sabbatical.
Ha hahahahha ha ha ha!
Well. You know, when you don’t have to sit in front of your computer every day, you’re really not inclined to sit in front of your computer if you don’t have to.
So, I’ll just update you on what I’ve been up to in my days of leisure since my last real blog post. One pic per day. (ish)
Day 1: Worked out, sewed a ton, joked about eating bon bons on couch, but definitely did eat bon bons on couch.
Day 2: Sewed a ton. Made a Christmas tree skirt! (I know, I already blogged about that.)
Day 3: Finished 20 toast-themed scrunchies for a friend who owns a local chain of restaurants called, you guessed it, Toast. (yum)
Day 4: Stephanie and I wore the Mexican tablecloth skirts I made while we sang a duet of The Christmas Song. Just be glad this isn’t a video.
Day 5: I went Christmas shopping and got the boys this ornament. Summed up their 2018 nicely.
Day 6: Finally! Kiki’s annual box of cookies arrived! And the jersey Linus ordered that was almost exactly like the one I had ordered for him for Christmas! (Just a different player on the back, which fortunately makes it EXTREMELY different in his eyes.) This got long so click to read more
It’s day 2 of my sabbatical. TIME IS FLYING. Just kidding. It’s 10:30 in the morning and I’ve been up for hours and have already gone to Home Depot for some random things, made a tree skirt, trimmed the Christmas tree (I mean literally, the branches at the bottom were too low to allow gifts to fit), trimmed the Christmas tree (I mean, I put a few ornaments on, but outsourcing the rest to the boys), and made a to-do list for stuff I need to sew.
I think it’s time for a Christmas movie on Netflix and hot chocolate.
Obviously, I wrote this post last week. Oops!
I can’t believe Christmas was two days ago already! Ain’t that how it goes. The post-holiday blues are settling in a bit, so I’m glad tomorrow we’ll be heading to Baton Rouge to spend time with my sister and her family.
Anyway, we had a nice Christmas. We had steak for dinner on Christmas eve, and then the boys and I read The Night Before Christmas together (cue heart melting) and I made them take pictures with their stockings, and then I sent them to bed so Santa could come. (Not that they believe, but they like to pretend anyway.)
I spent another hour wrapping a bazillion presents and drinking my traditional eggnog daiquiri that I had procured earlier in the day. And then I put together the eggnog French toast we were going to have for breakfast. (Yeah, I like eggnog.)
We were ready!
The next morning, the boys were up before 7, but I told them they weren’t allowed to wake us up until then. But at 7 on the dot, they dragged me out of bed to open their gifts.
We had quite the pile under the tree, and we all made pretty quick work of it. Their big present was my old laptop from work (I got my new one last week) so I wrapped up the old box to remind them why they didn’t get anything huge.
They got clothes and drawing supplies and lots of Pop figures (they’re obsessed) and books and new towels. (I know, towels don’t seem super exciting for 10 year old boys, but they have been complaining about the size of our bath towels so I got them each their own bath sheet.)
I also made out like a bandit. I got a lovely necklace that the boys picked out, a bracelet with a stamped piece (101010 on one side, 42 on the other – 42 is my lucky number, and 101010 is 42 in binary, and also this year the boys are 10 and I am 42.) I also got an electric wine opener and a Tile and a new skillet from Kiki. Oh! And a case for my new laptop. And a coloring book that is for grown-up eyes only. Oh! And a macro lens and case for my phone. (Would love the telephoto lens too, thank goodness my birthday is next week, eh?) Man, I got spoiled. The boys also got me cards and Oliver wrote I was the best mom on Earth, which made me cry. (Sorry, all other moms on Earth!)
Anyway, after that excitement was over, we had breakfast and I made a salad to bring to the pub later. Yep, George’s dream came true and we got to spend Christmas at the pub. There was a huge spread of food and a bunch of our friends and thankfully a friend of the boys’ as well. It was a lovely lunch, but we did miss having family around.
Later, I brought the boys home with their friend Ethan, and they played Just Dance, which was adorbs.
And after Ethan went home, Linus and Oliver and I played Ticket to Ride, which was fun and only resulted in a few fights and tears. I also made the bittersweet discovery that they like tamales, which is bittersweet because Terry makes them only at certain times of year, and now I have to share them. Ugh. (Fortunately, I found that Costco sells decent ones that they’ll eat.)
The end!
I really have no excuse, but I just didn’t get it together in time to order nice photo cards for the holidays. Well, I nearly did, but then CVS screwed them up, and I didn’t have it in me to try again, and they’d have barely been here in time to mail, so I just bought some cute old-school cards, had some photos printed, and put them inside, just like in the olden days. (And I only sent out like six, but I’d have sent out a bunch more if I’d gotten photo cards.)
Anyway, so then I decided since I’m not actually buying the cards, I can go on the card websites I like and fantasize about the cards I would order! And heck, since I’m not actually buying them, I’m going all out with fancy corners!
From Minted:
Oh of course, I have to have this one.
But these are cute too:
OH BUT NO.
Next year FOR SURE.
From Paper Culture:
That’s cute. I came really close to ordering that one.
From Tiny Prints:
Since we’re fantasizing, I’m going FULL GLITTER.
Or, why not scalloped edges?
So, there you have it. Your choice of holiday cards to print out and stick to your fridge.
Some outtakes from the photo session:
Individual pics:
Special thanks to the Hawkins for the amazing Christmas jumpers they gave the boys last year when we visited!
Last year, we spent the holidays in the UK, and it was magical and wonderful and fantastic and everything else positive (minus of course the last day when Miles barfed everywhere and I got to put one of those tiny washer/dryer combos to the test) (and why did I have to ruin that sentence with barf talk? Just Keeping It Real, folks.) but this year, we’re staying home. Which is fine, I guess (kicks the dirt sadly) but I reasoned if we were going to be in stinky old Louisiana for Christmas, I’d better decorate the house so we’d feel more festive.
So I turned my attention to the mantle. I started buying garlands to hang over it when they appeared at Michael’s last month. I dug out the boys’ stockings (though I still need to fix the one Ziggy chewed up two years ago.) But I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do on the mantle itself.
Then I remembered my mom’s Christmas village set that she didn’t really use anymore. But then I was reminded she’d asked me years ago if I wanted it, and I said no, and so she sent it to my sister. Okay, plan B.
I was perusing Facebook one day and came across a papercraft village that I could make with my Silhouette. Not too hard, and since it was mostly made of cardstock, cheap! (Just the way I like it.) I bought the templates and started cutting. And gluing. And folding. And after a few nights of watching movies over Thanksgiving break, it was done!
If you plan to create your own cardstock village, I have some advice.
Wait, but that’s not all! The pièce de résistance is my autographed It’s a Wonderful Life poster.
Yes, that’s right! I said AUTOGRAPHED.
Next year, expect to see MORE GARLANDS and MORE TINY BUILDINGS! Wooooo!
We left off on December 22 with Rachel and I doing our part to rid the world of wine and cheese. On to the 23rd…
pyjammy dot blog 