Christmas 2024…Joy in our World ♥️

If you’ve been reading this blog for longer than ten minutes, you know that I love Timmy, our LoveBugs and Christmas…pretty much in that order. So although I dreaded the three day drive back to New York, I was excited to return. The drive itself was uneventful.

We enjoyed dinner at Aldo’s Kitchen in Alexandria, VA. Having discovered Aldo’s last May, we knew to leave room for dessert.

Aldo’s is a gem… yummy food, attentive service and great wine selection. Highly recommend.

Arriving home late afternoon, Saturday December 14, we unpacked, relaxed and greeted our local firemen as they made their annual “Santa Run”.

Sunday we bought the live tree and dragged out the Christmas decorations. Timmy fired up the Christmas tunes and we got to work.

I’m so glad that we’ve pared down the excess that was. Over the past five years, I’ve been culling the seasonal decor and think we’re in a good place.

Just one red storage box for the living room ♥️🎄♥️

Monday evening all four bugs converged and we decorated and laughed. I cannot tell you how happy I am to be in their presence. It is the greatest gift.

The “little tree” tradition began when Grace and Charlotte were toddlers. The first tree was barely 2 feet tall.

Many of the ornaments are handmade and spark sweet reminiscences.

Timmy captured Gracie showing me a video.

Watching me cook. Gone are the days when they’d be fighting to help at the stove. It is a special kind of joy to listen to them chatting and laughing. My heart was bursting.

This right here…my everything.

We finished tree trimming after dinner.

I love the candid pics…but I really do need to see their faces.

Happiest Grandma in the Universe.

One take and done. Charlotte is the queen of selfies ♥️

The days between decorating and Christmas were busy and cold. Really freaking cold. I tried walking when the temps were in the 40’s, but pretty much quit once they dropped into the 30’s then 20’s. #ihatenywinters

We loved watching Claire compete. So proud that as a freshman she plays on the varsity team.

Can I tell you that these turkeys are a poor substitute for Siesta’s sea birds? A very poor substitute.

I spent a fun day shopping for the stocking gifts. I laid them out on the counter and Timmy decorated new stockings for Erica and Joey.

So yes, I took three photos and couldn’t decide which one to include…

We drove out east to the newest location of Gingerbread University. Fourth location in five years. Whatever…I’m just glad they are still operating.

Can you guess the temperature just by looking at this view from the parking lot? It was cold. Freaking cold.

Happy folks decorating at the venue.
As the girls and their cousins grew older, it became impossible to try to coordinate their schedules for in venue decorating… so we incorporated the gingerbread houses into our holiday celebration.

We were attempting a selfie, and someone took pity.

We stopped at Drifters on the way home and had the most delicious holiday Margaritas.

Please look closely, that’s lobster on top of Tim’s burger.

My salad was yummy…but I do wish I’d ordered that lobster burger.

We live adjacent to a beautiful golf course…the drive in and out of our community is always lovely …on this day, I felt like we were in a Currier and Ives lithograph.

We spent a day grocery shopping and cleaning…then it was time to welcome the family.

Timmy fetched Claire and Isabel around 11:00 am and we got right to work on the butterball cookies. This is my Mom’s recipe, the only cookies we bake and I never feel closer to my mom than I do at Christmas. It’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that it’s been 43 years since she made these cookies. I miss her.

Claire filled the time waiting for Gracie and Charlotte by making a card for Aunt Regina.

My heart

My love

Joey’s realizing that this plate is too small for his box of cookies.

Opening the stockings.

Grace and Charlotte making their batch and giving me the best side eye.

That’s my sweet sister Regina…mom to T Parry and Parker

Isabel and James

Once T and Parker arrive, the decorating begins

Parker brought help this year. That’s Erica next to Charlotte.

It’s so much fun to watch the creativity…but listening to the banter and laughter is everything.

James is taking photos and ribbing Parker ♥️

Regina and Kristin made short work of cleanup. I couldn’t figure out how to remove the ornament from the light fixture…so the final photo is less than optimal. Whatever.

Parker and Erica

Charlotte and Joey

Claire

Isabel

Grace

The traditional dice games…Timmy and T Parry were the big winners.

#lowstakes

As the evening wore down and coats were donned…Someone remembered the “Crackers” (some folks call them “Poppers”)… thank goodness! Can you imagine Christmas without the Crackers? (The horror!)

…and again …more laughing ♥️♥️♥️

Now that the kids are older, it doesn’t take 2 hours and twenty five trips to their cars to load the presents. So after just half an hour of hugs and goodbyes we began clean up. Which didn’t take long because Kristin and Regina had made a huge dent in the chaos.

This is how we usually cap off our Christmas…

…too bad my pj’s weren’t a Christmas plaid…oh well…I wasn’t expecting one last selfie.

Every day with Timmy is wonderful (…well most days…😉) but Christmas with Timmy and my family is always the best day of my year. Once again I approached the holiday with an open heart and no expectations. I soaked in every moment, reveled in the laughter and went to sleep grateful for this life that we have♥️

A few days after Christmas found us shopping for our upcoming trip to Asia. After shopping we somehow found ourselves at Drifters enjoying a late lunch.

Crab cakes, truffle fries for Timmy

Southwest salmon salad for moi.

One last week before we escape to some warmth, found us at a CYO game.
Isabel is a joy to watch. #pointguard

We stopped counting the number of steals at 10…

Hard to believe the skill level of these sixth graders. So much fun.

Here we are four days before we leave for Singapore, …it’s 21 degrees, I haven’t walked in who knows how many days, it’s an ordeal just to brave the frozen tundra to fetch the mail …so I’m happily counting down the time until our next adventure.

We have some cool capers planned …actually this trip has more structure built in than we usually like… but we don’t know if we will ever be able to return to that part of the world …so I’m back to maximizing our time…we are going to pretend that we are 15 years younger – we’ll get up early and tour longer. Well, that’s the plan anyway.
We wish all the folks who stop by to read this blog, a very happy new year. Thanks for checking in ♥️