Our lead-up to Christmas this year was full of so much joy and light it was almost hard to handle. The fact that the kids and I were (very!) busy with school and work right through the 21st was a little rough-- but only because it compacted the hours we had available to do the things I love about this season: Lights, baking, wrapping, friends, drinking lots of tea... But we did it! I just had to forgo a little bit of sleep, and it was totally worth it.
We visited the Nela Park lights this year for the first time. Made an event of it with singing carols and taking silly pictures. We really appreciated all of the creativity on display.
Our own light show at home. By the 20th we finally had a few packages out for display.
Friday the 21st ended up being a terrific day. A festive and low-key day at school, involving very little actual teaching and supervision of an activity period that could have been worse... then a really fun happy hour gathering at the home of some coworkers, who happened to have terrific IPA *on tap* in their basement. Had to leave a little earlier than I otherwise might have because I had another party to get to.
Pastor Roger invited the musicians for a holiday dinner at his home in Kent and it was lovely. We had delicious food, drank "cold toddy," made ice-cream in a ball, and got to share our families with one another. True to form, Jack only warmed up to the gathering in the last half hour or so, but at least he did enjoy himself for a bit. Ivy had a blast playing with Roger's daughter's collection of American Girl dolls with her church friends. We are lucky to have found friendships with these terrific people.
And then-- straight from Kent to the airport to bring our Vovo home for her Christmas visit!
Winter warmed up to her right away!
We woke to a winter wonderland the next morning... What a picture perfect way to start break!
Made all the better with a trip to Chagrin Falls with my girl for haircuts and treats...
... and then a visit to Glow with Gram, Vovo, and our friend Elaine.
... and pre-Christmas snuggling...
We topped off the day with what I hope will become a new tradition: A Cookies and Caroling party. While we did not make it outdoors to actually *carol* (someday, maybe...), many rousing songs were sung (in harmony even!) in my living room and that was fabulous.
We had 46 people in attendance. Can you tell? We ran out of pizza and had to get another sheet. Caroling apparently makes people quite hungry, note to self.
And several babies who were the highlight of the evening.
This little one sang along to Angels we have heard on high, on my lap. Love.
And, Hadley tamed our chinchilla! It was an amazing night indeed.
Sunday was the much anticipated children's pageant at church and it was the sweetest thing.
Look at that earnest little face. The kids all did a great job, and the adult singers got to perform "Jesus what a wonderful child," so it was a fine morning!
Starting to look more like Christmas around here....
Sunday night we went on an adventure, and drove an hour and a half to Mansfield to see the Kingwood Center Gardens. It was totally worth the drive.
Maybe just for this moment, where we gathered around a little bonfire and sang carols with people we'd never met and it was so achingly lovely and Christmas-y that I almost couldn't handle it.
We got lightsticks for the kids and had a lot of fun with them.
The inside of the house was spectacularly decorated. No Stan Hywet by any means, but a lot of fun.
Ready for Christmas to start for real...
