I started this post before Christmas - but in between one thing and another, I never finished it. So now here we are already in the New Year! Happy 2023!
And Merry 9th Day of Christmas, everyone! Glory to God in the highest!
The Christmas holidays, with all their comforts and chaos, are wrapping up. I just took our older kids to the airport this afternoon, so I'm feeling a bit melancholy. The parties are over - except Epiphany, which will be subdued this year, as have all our celebrations. We didn't have quite as many social and school engagements as we have in the past - and I have to admit I missed the parties and performances. No command or wardroom Christmas parties to get dressed up for. I did have book club and Bible study Christmas parties, which were nice, and I was able to meet up with fellow blogger Melanie Bettinelli for coffee when she was in town - a wonderful visit. The youngest had an elementary school concert, but I had the time wrong, so we were 30 minutes late for the hour show. Being a 15-20 minute drive from our parish means we didn't go to lessons and carols, but we did make it to confession and the Jingle Mingle for the elementary school, but all in all, both Advent and Christmas were quieter around here - which I have mixed feelings about.
I also miss the extended family gatherings and having friends over, although I loved having time with just our entire crew. Since our older kids were only here for a short time, we didn't host any parties, although we did finally have the priests over for dinner early in December and a couple of my daughter's friends came over for New Year's Eve. That gave us time to do some touristy things like finally visiting the Alamo and checking out the Inner Space Caverns. Our oldest son and his wife had their trip cut short by the Southwest fiasco, but they made it for two nights, and we ate richly and took a hike and exchanged gifts and played lots of games. My one regret is not getting downtown to the museums with our second son who enjoys that kind of thing. We ran out of time because the girls and I spent too long shopping on the day we planned to go. It's hard to balance everyone's desires.
Actually, shopping is the one thing I haven't been able to get figured out after all these years. Every year I waste timing shopping and then buy too much and then waste time running around making returns. I was uninspired for gifts this year:socks, underwear, flannels, and books. I stressed over finding a good commuter backpack for one son and only found a so-so one, and I spent hours looking at reborn baby dolls, only to learn the youngest wanted a boy baby after she opened the girl doll. But because I acknowledge my shortcomings as a shopper, it doesn't hurt my feelings when the kids ask if they can exchange their gifts - and it provides an excuse for an outing together shopping. Obsessing over shopping is a bad habit I haven't been able to shake because I fret about making everyone happy with gifts, when in reality one nice thing is enough - if I just could figure out what that one thing is for each kid. Reducing shopping should be my resolution for next Christmas...
We did see some extended family just before Christmas - grandparents and cousins on my husband's side in Oklahoma City. It was a quiet visit because half of the cousins were planning to visit the grandparents after Christmas. However, it gave us the opportunity to enjoy each other's company with more attention. And as my in-laws age, the smaller crowd is also easier to manage in terms of feeding and cleaning. We were there for the arctic blast that swept the country, so we didn't get outside much, but our eight year old was delighted to see a little snow, even if it didn't pack at all. My husband took the girl cousins ice skating and our three middle kids to a basketball game to watch the Oklahoma Thunder. I stayed in with our youngest and had a good talk with my mother-in-law, which was only possible because just our family was spending the night.
We also made a stop at my brother's for a festive dinner before returned to our house. He made an incredible brisket - which I don't usually rave about - and our little girls had time to get all the doll clothes out before we headed back to our house. Our second son arrived from Boston the day before Christmas Eve, which is when we finally decorated our Christmas tree while waiting for Midnight Mass. Because of the trip to the in-laws and end of term grading, I didn't put out all of the decorations or hang all the lights. We set up the Advent wreath, calendar, and Jesse tree, but the rest of the decorations remained in boxes until the week before Christmas. Because our tree was such a skinny Charlie Brown spruce too small for all our ornaments, I hung some ornaments on the house plants. (We've been debating making the switch to artificial next year.). After decorating we ate our snacky bites and watched Christmas Story and Muppets Christmas Carol and other holiday favorites. before prepping for Christmas Eve mass. I had one of my latest nights of recent history getting the gifts organized and deciding which gifts would be given and which would go in the returns box after Midnight Mass.
This is the year that the youngest daughter really doubted Santa Claus, although I could tell she didn't really want to give up believing yet. One of the kids once said he believed for a long time because he didn't believe that I would buy him such good gifts. This year was not that year. I didn't do anything to dispel the doubt. It's hard to please the older kids, so I ask them questions about their gifts, which are mostly clothes, and openly offer to exchange them. No one had a big wish list item this year, so the magic of surprises was fairly minimal - the highlight was the kids' gift exchange. They know what each other likes better than me.
After opening gifts and eating brunch on Christmas day, we took a hike, built Legos, played dominos and Rummikub, our family favorite, before lounging with a Christmas movie - this time While You Were Sleeping - the girls' choice. The next day we took advantage of nice weather to visit San Antonio, stopping at the San Jose mission, the Alamo, eating Mexican food along the Riverwalk, and then hitting the cathedral and the Mercado. Brought home a little brightly painted metal framed San Pascual for the kitchen. The following day was a shopping outing and a day for the teens to see their friends at track practice and the gym. That night we had an alumni club Christmas gathering at an Irish Pub downtown, while the next day some of us went to the Inner Space Caverns, a privately owned cave just north of Austin. It was touristy but interesting - surprisingly large and under the highway. You don't know what's below your feet. Since it was a private cave, we had to take the tour, which meant a slower visit, but also a more educational one. Our 18 year old complained of joining the sheeple here and at the Alamo, but we learned both American history and natural history in the process.
We continued to take in the local sites that night, when we finally made it to the Broken Spoke, the honky tonk where George Strait got his start. One of my friends picked the night, and I had to beg my people to come out late on a Thursday, but it was actually really fun - under 21s are allowed because they serve food, so everyone but the youngest and our middle son, who had had to work that day and was tired, went. I love dancing, but my husband always gets frustrated with me for trying to lead - maybe because I learned to dance by practicing with my sister? But we watched some youtube videos and practiced before we left, and the crowd was not all polished two-steppers, so we were able to get out on the dance floor and have a ball.
The next day was the day we should have gone to museums, but we had to do some cleaning and food shopping, and the guys had to watch football most of the day. It was bowl game day. I can't devote that much attention to football, and neither could some of the other neighbor ladies on the block - we all happened to meet out at the end of our driveways. I was watching our daughter and her friend ride bikes, one neighbor was walking her dog, the other two were comparing notes on their pregnant daughters. After talking for 40 minutes outside, we realized it was happy hour, so one neighbor grabbed a bottle of wine, I snatched some seasoned nuts from our pantry, another grabbed cheese and crackers, and we sat around for another hour talking about this and that - my favorite kind of impromptu gathering.
Saturday my daughter and I took a long walk on a trail at the county park before our shopping outing that delayed the museum visit, because I also had to clean a few more things before our oldest and his wife arrived that afternoon. And that brings me back to the beginning of this post - our New Year's Eve celebration with the family. Big dinner, sibling gift exchange, murder mystery game, Bananagrams and Rummikub, a movie (Moana), and then MIDNIGHT! I had bought a magnum of cheap champagne at Trader Joe's and some Martinelli's so we toasted the new year, and shot of some bottle rockets and lit sparklers. The older kids jumped in the pool, and then jumped right back out. The youngest stayed up until almost one, but she was in tears at midnight because by the time the movie ended, and my husband found the right channel, the ball had dropped at Times Square, so she was in tears for a bit, but recovered after toasting with Martinellis sparkling cider.
On New Year's day, we went to Mass - made it on time to 9:30, even with the late night. Took some awkward photos outside of the church to document the presence of all of our kids. Nothing makes me happier than to have our crew taking up a whole pew and using up all the time given at the sign of peace to hug and shake hands and pat backs. After a big brunch, we had a little quiet time - miracle! - and then in the early afternoon drove down towards the city to hike part of the Barton Creek greenbelt - ostensibly to see waterfalls, but the creek was dried up for most of the hike. The first half mile to the first set of falls was a party scene - everyone had the same idea to take advantage of the beautiful weather on New Year's day to take a hike. But the second mile was much quieter; we only met a few people on the trail to the second, higher falls, where the kids could throw rocks into a small pool of water. They haven't really grown all the way up, yet.
We were back from the hike in time for a sunset happy hour on the back porch before prepping our traditional white meal for New Year's Day - pork, sauerkraut, gnepp, and mashed potatoes - plus roasted brussels and cauliflower. This year we added a black-eyed pea soup for the health conscious members of the family, and a nod to our Advent "soup supper" theme (in a reaction to our rich meals around Thanksgiving, I declared we'd have a soup themed Advent, so we ate simply, but deliciously, most of December).
And that brings us back to today, Monday, although now it is after midnight, so technically Tuesday and the 10th day of Christmas! We had homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast as the older kids packed up. I had to make two batches because I messed up the yeast in the first one. Then the siblings hugged each other goodbye, and I took the older ones to the airport, after a stop to meet their dad, back to work after a week off, at a taco shop for lunch and a quick stop at the rock shop for a gift before heading to catch their flights And now I am wishing for more days, more hours, with everyone here. Time is flying.
This is a long post, in part because it has taken me multiple days to write it, and also because the kids have been encouraging me to write down memories because they think I'm already losing my mind. I admit to feeling a bit like I have ADD when everyone is home, but it is just because so much is going on. The dinner table is LOUD. And I love it. I love listening to them talk to each other and to us and to have them all around the table. I don't care if they tease me about being old and forgetful - if only they realized how young I am to have such grown up kids! And I realize it is karma for the grief I gave my parents!
There is a part of me that misses the traditions of my youth, gathering with my own parents and siblings, their kids, and cousins, and the parties and school events of our younger years, but I love these precious few days when we have everyone together, and glory be!, they like each other and laugh together - even if at our expense. It has been a good week, chaos and comforts, all of it.
