A Day in the Life: Christmas 2014

It was our year to go up to Schenectady for Christmas. In some ways I should have known it was going to be different than the previous time we had Christmas up there, but I wasn't quite prepared for just how different it was. First of all, we have 2 kids now and not one. Secondly, Lisa now has a kid and soon to be (well now he is) husband and a new house, where we were staying. So inherently, the home base was already different. And please don't translate different to mean bad. Not at all. I just was a little derailed for a minute because in my head I remembered a very quiet, relaxed Drzewiecki holiday. But there were many less players involved then!

We had a small Christmas at our house on Christmas Eve morning before we left, opening most of the gifts for the kids from us and from my family. Honestly, I think the kids would have been fine with just that! Unfortunately we had to get going so it was a little harried, but ultimately we did have some good time just to ourselves, the 4 of us.

I still got in my morning run on Christmas day. It was 50+ degrees out after all! We had been out the night before at Pam's family Christmas Eve. We didn't stay until the end which I think was a faux pas, but hey, I didn't particularly want to be up until 2 am finishing the kids stockings etc. I did set my alarm to get up and out early so that I wouldn't put a damper on the activities. The kids had a TV in their room at TeeTee's house, so that was Christmas enough for them! I could barely pull them downstairs from Mickey Mouse. Eventually we did the stockings, and slowly got things together for breakfast. Bill's family came by in the morning, which I also wasn't quite prepared for. Now I come from a big family, which I can completely appreciated. But his family definitely takes the cake, and they are all very tall people! After the commotion died down, we did have a nice Drzewiecki family Christmas in the afternoon. Zack never actually made it out of his PJs. And even better, after dinner the kids went to Pam's and Mike and I went to the movies! We saw the Gambler, which I didn't even realize was a remake, but it was very good. All in all a packed day!

The following day Mike had some wedding details to take care of with Lisa and Bill, so Pam and I took the kids to the museum. We got into a little bit of trouble with TeeTee for ruining Emily's schedule, but she was happy to be with her cousins! Somehow the guys went out for "a couple of beers" in the afternoon and didn't show back up until after 10 pm that night. Not sure we can let that slide every visit! Saturday was all wedding details, which will be discussed in another post.

Mr. D liked his new rain boots!

Ellie personally bought me this running head band for Christmas. I love it and my ears do too!

Reindeer Magic is a new favorite. The kids are obsessed with reindeer.

Cousin Secret Santa gift! Thanks Sophie! The stickers all made it onto the top of our downstairs toilet one day. We couldn't find Ellie because she was in the bathroom with the lights off. Go figure.

Yeah for my yearly calendar! I love Georgia O'keefe!

Zack--what is it? (shoulder shrug)

Stockings on Christmas morning

Ellie was really into it this year.

He was happy after pulling out the first gift. We had to remind him that there were more in there. The kids favorite stocking stuffers--gummy vitamins!