Holly Jolly

Christmas 2018 is officially over.  It's 2019 now.  It's a good time to pause and reflect on the holiday season that has just come to an end.  The holidays in 2018 didn't disappoint.  I look forward to this time of year as soon as the days start to grow shorter and cooler.  It is such a special time of year, especially with little ones experiencing the magic of the season!

I was able to take nearly two weeks off from work and it has been blissful.  Here are some of the highlights of our holiday season!

Julia helps to trim the tree (back to the good old artificial one after cleaning up millions of needles last year!)

Making Fort Gingerbread - Meme sent us awesome sets for making a Gingerbread Lighthouse and Cabin in honor of our Maine trip this year but alas most of it crumbled during shipping.  We were able to salvage some pieces with a little bit of hot glue and the kids went to town.  They didn't seem to mind a bit!

The annual Christmas party for the kids at Cardinal Health where they see Santa every year.  Enjoying the sausage and pancakes in this shot.  

The girls are in Daisy Scouts now which has been really great for them.  Their troop leaders seem pretty amazing to me and are always coming up with meaningful trips for them like this one to a local retirement home to sing carols for residents. In this shot they are joined by the kindergarten troop at their school as well.

The Christmas season is not complete without lots of cookie-making.  Here the girls are putting some glaze on a lemon shortbread cookie that was very yummy.  They are starting to tip the scales a bit and actually be a little more useful in the kitchen than just extra work!  It's a good phenomenon.

Mason Christmas!  We hosted Nancy and her family and Chris and Jenny on the 22nd of December.  Jack's girlfriend Morgan was a new addition to our Christmas gathering! We had a Farkle tournament and a wine-tasting contest (Nancy and Mike won).  Keith and I have never won the wine tasting contest in all of the years that we have done it.  It's time to rectify that!

We were able to squeeze everyone around our new dining room table with a card table add-on.  It was tight but we made it work!  

This picture was taken at Wild Lights at the Columbus Zoo on December 23rd.  They put on an impressive show but we've seen it many times.  This year we checked out a nearby neighborhood light display on the same evening that the kids were even more excited about (probably because it was new and different).  Five houses across five acres all synced and coordinated to one six-minute recording that you tune into on the radio.  Very cool!

On Christmas Eve the kids helped to fill the luminary bags that are put out in our neighborhood.  This was their first year to help and they really enjoyed riding in the back of a neighbor's CRV at 4 mph and getting to jump out and distribute them.  The donuts and hot chocolate didn't hurt either.  

Christmas Eve was cut-out sugar cookie day!  We bought pre-made cookie icing from the store instead of making buttercream this year.  Saved a lot of time and was easier to work with too.  

This pic is of Caroline putting out the reindeer food she made at the Cardinal Health party.  The magic is real!

He came!  The kids left cookies for Santa (of course) but also cookies and some syrup (in a shot glass!) for Elwood our Elf.  They also left him a note and of course he left them one too before taking off for the North Pole with Santa for another year. 

Colin shows off his Christmas loot.  His favorite gift was his Amazon Echo Dot (3rd generation he adds) for his room!  As the kids get older, the presents get smaller.  Funny how that works. 

On the 27th we drove to Indiana to see the grandparents and celebrate Christmas with them. First we stopped to see our old California friends who now live in Indiana. Our kids are all very close in age and they enjoyed a play date while the adults caught up.

Olivia and Aiden (cousins from Chicago) were staying with Grandma and Gandpa too and the kids all had a lot of fun playing together.  The weather was beautiful one day while we were there so we got the kids out of the house and took them to the 4th Street pedestrian bridge that crosses the Ohio River between Indiana and Kentucky.

Lots of games were played with the cousins - mostly Chinese Checkers, Battleship and Sorry (all games that our kids received as Christmas gifts).

On the 29th we went to Meme and Pop Pop's for a Christmas gathering.  Aunt Nancy, Uncle Bub and Aunt Jenny were all there.  Here's a shot of Uncle Bub and Colin. 

Caroline shows Meme the new watch she got for Christmas. 

 Besides these pictures we had some other fun times.  Our New Year's Eve plans with friends fell through when their son got ill. But we had our own fun at home with an appetizer dinner, some mocktails for the kids, Yahtzee and Mario on the Wii.  The kids stayed up until 11 and I'm sure could have made it until midnight but Keith and I were ready for them to go to bed!  Colin had his first sleepover at our house which was a big success.  The girls are asking to have one too but I think we'll wait another year or two.  All things in good time!  And now on to 2019!