Christmas this year was perhaps my most favorite ever. It was busy and crazy, but it was also slow and sweet at times. People loved their gifts, which is always such a joy. Evelyn loved her gifts, which was especially fun. While she didn’t get the present thing completely, she did have fun seeing what was inside her boxes–so much so that she wanted to play with that present right then and didn’t particularly care that she had more presents waiting on her.
We changed up our Christmas traditions a bit this year, hosting Christmas at our house instead of going over to my parents’ house. I was a bit nervous about how I would feel about it–if I would miss being at my parents’ house, if I would feel overly stressed about it all, etc. But honestly it worked perfectly. Minus the hour surrounding lunch where I felt a bit stressed, I loved having my family at our house. Really overall, I think it created less stress for us.
It’s hard to describe the joy that is Christmas Day, but we felt it so absolutely this year. I always say that my favorite hour or so of every year is the hour when my family is opening Christmas presents. It is giving and receiving and joy and family togetherness all wrapped up in one, and we got to experience it three times this year, all in different ways (with Gerrit’s family, our little family, and my family), some more chaotic, some more peaceful, but all so lovely that on Christmas night I cried from the joy of it all (and because I was exhausted).
Now on to some semblance of normalcy (but also enjoying having Gerrit home from work for the whole week!), and planning for a new year!