Christmas, in a nutshell

Preparing, celebrating, and cleaning up from our Christmas celebration has taken most of my time and energy lately.  So, here is the nutshell version.

First of all, preparing for Christmas was extra-special because I had more time to do it.  Despite a decade of trying, I finally got the outside of the house lit this year.

Wood Pile reindeer

Night Lights

We made three (!) kinds of Christmas cookies.  I even helped volunteer at Elena's school to help her class make ginger snaps!

Viv and I helped E's class at school

We all went to a free (!) Christmas concert by the Municipal Band.  It was great!  The kids even knew some of the songs and sang along.  The girls went to a work holiday party and got to see Santa!  Jason and I went to our friends the H's holiday party--with only grown-ups and it was fabulous!  Vivian had her preschool Christmas pageant.  They even played handbells to Joy To The World.  Viv was fantastic!

It was dark inside.  You get the idea, Viv was excited!

There was plenty of seasonal music around the house, and lots of watching our video of The Nutcracker (Baryshnikov/Kirkland version).  As a surprise, I took the girls to the theater to see it live!

On our way to the Warner

After the show--girls in the city!

We had both sets of grandparents come to our house.  It was wonderful to spend time with family!  The girls enjoyed their gifts and their company.  Elena has been working hard on her Christmas piece, and she played "Jingle Bells" on the piano for everyone!





We actually had cards ordered (Elena did the artwork!)--but they arrived later than expected.  The good news is the company waived the charge, the bad news is they will be sent late.  I figured I'll consider it a win if we get them out before February.

I know this post is up late--there is a lot more to write about, but I don't want to get any further behind than right now.  Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Solstice, Seasons Greetings to everyone!