Ohhhh it's felt good to unwind and disconnect for a few days with my little family. Much of the last few days have been for recovering from what has seemed like an unending busy spell, so we've spent a lot of time in our jammies and making plans for the coming year. And coffee, always lots of coffee.
I'm only now just getting our Christmas morning pictures off of my camera, and thought I'd share a few with all of you. We didn't have a white Christmas, but that didn't dampen our spirits for a day filled with so much love and thankfulness. To me Christmas is solely about being with the ones you love and appreciating the glorious winter surrounding us. I know I've always said that Fall is my favorite season, but the additional festiveness that has been brought into our winters thanks to Oswin are definitely making winter give fall a run for its money.
Santa put a lot of thought into our stocking's this year. Papa found some delicious treats in his stocking: pate, saucisson and chocolate...
...while Oswin found a sweet little wooden camera in her stocking...
...and Mama found her most favorite tea in the whole wide world in hers!
We keep the gift giving pretty simple on Christmas, and go by the "something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read" philosophy. We're fortunate that we don't actually need or want too many things, so it seems silly to go overboard. Except books, we're always allowed to go overboard on books.
We started two traditions last year: one, we bought Oswin a little live tree that comes inside for a few days to celebrate with us; and two, we decorate that tree with the ornaments that we began collecting for her last year. I had originally wanted to add one ornament to the collection a year, but we've found so many cool ones at the Christmas markets that she now has eight. Whoops. Sometimes I just can't help myself.
A little note on live Christmas trees: The research I've done tells me that live Christmas trees cannot survive indoors for more than 7-10 days. We learned that the hard way when Oswin's original tree from last year didn't make it to see this Christmas. Our strategy for this tree was simple: on the 23rd we brought it into our unheated garage to lessen the shock of bringing it inside. On the 24th we brought it up to the living room and decorated it. On the 26th it went back into the garage for the night, again to lessen the shock of it going back outside. On the 27th it went back outside. So far so good.
Oswin had so much fun this Christmas, even if she doesn't quite "get it" yet. This can be evidenced by the above face, which is her "I'm so excited I can't even open my eyes!" face.
We practiced opening presents, something that I feel is going to come back to haunt us in the coming days. How do you get a toddler to understand that "this paper" is open to rip, but the paper in their books is not? Poor kid is gonna be so confused!
And now I get to say what every parent of a toddler has said before me: Next year we're saving a ton of money and just buying her wrapping paper. It is way more fun than actual presents.
And there you have it, Oswin's second Christmas in the books. I'm not ready to say good-bye to the holidays just yet, despite the fact that today is the last hurrah for 2014. I'm already looking forward to and planning next Christmas. Menus, decorating, trips, DIYs, presents, etc. Let the countdown begin!
From our family to yours, we hope you had the greatest holiday season to date. Full of warm and fuzzy feelings, tasty treats, and winter cheer in your heart and in your glass. We hope all your New Year's dreams come true, and that 2015 is everything you want it to be.
Love,
Les Duggans
A la prochaine friends...
