Which can only mean one thing. Cue post-holiday meltdown.
Christmas week is over. Yes, I said week. That's because for the first time since I graduated from K-State, the week between December 25th and January 2nd, was actually considered "Christmas Vacation".
No work. No meetings. No emails. No video conferences.
11 days of bliss. Sleeping in. Cups of coffee in my pjs with the company of the Today Show. I went to the grocery store on Tuesday at 10AM. I checked twice with the clerks in the aisles to make sure they were actually open. I swear I was the only one there. It was lovely. Now I know that grocery shopping on Sunday afternoons is extremely overrated, not to mention overcrowded. I actually cooked dinner for my husband, an area I'm pretty sure I've been slacking in for the past 8 months. I cleaned out cabinets. Organized closets. Stayed up late without feeling guilty. Watched movies. Did a little shopping. Even caught up on my favorite soap. It was refreshing. Relaxing.
There's only one thing left to do. Cue the sad face.
Take down the Christmas decorations.
Since I was at home all week, I decided I'd leave them up. Enjoy one more week of Christmas bliss. Each morning, I'd plug in the tree and garland on the piano. One day I even found Christmas music still on one of the channels on the TV. I turned the volume way up and sang along.
There's just about nothing better than Christmas time.
This year we had five glorious days with our family. First with Kevin's family in Hays, and then my family in Oakley.
Time with family always goes too quickly. So we made sure to soak up every last drop this holiday season.
We stayed up late. Telling stories. Playing games. Reminiscing about the past. Laughing, sometimes so hard we had tears in our eyes. Looking through pictures of our childhood, our parents, grandparents, our heritage. The people who have made us who we are today.
We ate too much. Everything from homemade carmels dipped in dark chocolate (which were amazing...my mouth still waters thinking about them) to homemade cookies, peppermint bark (a new recipe I tried this year), to my mom's infamous Christmas Eve spread, to the traditional Christmas Day meal. It was all way too good as usual. And don't forget the birthday pie for my Dad.
We also celebrated the birth of Jesus at mass on Christmas Day. We sang Christmas carols, listened to the Christmas story and were reminded of the true meaning of Christmas and of all reasons we have to be thankful and feel blessed.
We took our traditional family pictures. And yes, we had to take more than one in order to get at least one that turned out ok. "Ok" defined by 6 different people's opinions.
Santa found us and brought with him some rockin' good stuff.
We enjoyed all the little things about Christmas and the week that followed. Like I said, there's just about nothing better than the holiday season. Which is why you can imagine the post-holiday blues I'll be treading through tomorrow as I'm packing up the lights, the tree, the garland and the glitter. It's okay though. This is what makes the holiday season so fabulous. It comes once a year. And even in the other months, the non-holiday months, there's opportunity. Uncharted territory, new experiences, "Christmas-morning" experiences sewn into the fabric of our "normal" every day lives.
Cheers to Christmas 2011. I hope your Christmas and holiday season was blissful. Happy. Blessed. And left you fulfilled.
