It’s hard to believe that the holidays are over. As I keep putting away our Christmas decorations, it seems to me like it was only last week when we were pulling them out and putting them up. Maybe this is why people are beginning to put up Christmas decorations in October.
Our Christmas was wonderful. We drove up to Chicago to see my family and hopefully see some snow. We got snow as soon as we hit West Virginia. It was only a light dusting, but it was everywhere. The trees were coated in a glaze of white, and with the mountains in the background, it made for a very picturesque drive. The rest of the drive was very uneventful. Though we could have driven straight through, we decided to stop for the night just outside of Indianapolis. I know, I know, we’re getting old, right? I mean, we can’t even make a simple 16 hour drive anymore? Well, our thinking was that if we drove all the way through, we wouldn’t have gotten to my parents’ house until after one in the morning. With Kasia having been asleep for awhile, she would been wired and awake once we got there and wouldn’t want to go down. Then by the time we did get her to go to sleep, Alex and Noah would be waking up. So instead of just ruining everyone’s Saturday, we decided to suck it up and get a hotel for the night. As it was, it still took us awhile to get Kasia to sleep. And besides, I was feeling a little unintelligent that day, and so I needed to stay at a Holiday Inn Express to recharge my brain.
Once in Chicago, we were greeted by a lot less snow than we were expecting, but a lot more enthusiasm from Alex and Noah than we had anticipated. Apparently they had foregone their naps because they were just too excited about Kasia coming. It was nice to be surrounded by family that we don’t get to see very often during the holiday season. The weather outside was frigid, and snow was in the forecast. Christmas was coming.
On Sunday we got a special surprise from Santa Claus. Kasia was having a hard time taking a nap, so she was rather tired and grumpy when he came by (how dare Santa interrupt her nap?!). She eventually got over it and learned to enjoy her My Little Pony toy that Santa had for her. In a surprise move, Santa also had gifts for all us big kids too. The guys received little bottles of good booze the girls got... well, stuff that wasn’t as nice. Santa knows. Bro’s before... well, you know the saying.
Christmas Eve was a rather mellow day. We were going to Church in the late afternoon, but aside from that, there was nothing planned. It was really nice. At church, I was amazed at how long Kasia made it through the service before we had to run off to the nursery and have her run it off. It was nice, because in the nursery, I bumped into an old friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen since high school. I’m sure glad that he remembered me, because he had changed so much that I didn’t even recognize him anymore.
On Christmas Eve, we played a game that I think was designed by my mother. It was rolling dice for presents. She had a bunch of wrapped presents, some really nice, some not, and they were the prizes for a dice rolling game. If you roll doubles, you get to pick a present. You can pick from the pile, or you can steal somebody else’s. Then after all the gifts are gone, and the time limit expires, you open whatever gifts you have left. Alex really dominated this game and in the end, everyone came out with the appropriate gifts. I’d like to tip my had to Kara, who won the grand prize, which was a gift card to Barnes and Noble. I had quite a collection of gifts to open, until a last minute rally by my opponents saw them all taken from me. I never told anyone, but I cried for hours that night because I lost all those gifts.
Our Christmas was wonderful. We drove up to Chicago to see my family and hopefully see some snow. We got snow as soon as we hit West Virginia. It was only a light dusting, but it was everywhere. The trees were coated in a glaze of white, and with the mountains in the background, it made for a very picturesque drive. The rest of the drive was very uneventful. Though we could have driven straight through, we decided to stop for the night just outside of Indianapolis. I know, I know, we’re getting old, right? I mean, we can’t even make a simple 16 hour drive anymore? Well, our thinking was that if we drove all the way through, we wouldn’t have gotten to my parents’ house until after one in the morning. With Kasia having been asleep for awhile, she would been wired and awake once we got there and wouldn’t want to go down. Then by the time we did get her to go to sleep, Alex and Noah would be waking up. So instead of just ruining everyone’s Saturday, we decided to suck it up and get a hotel for the night. As it was, it still took us awhile to get Kasia to sleep. And besides, I was feeling a little unintelligent that day, and so I needed to stay at a Holiday Inn Express to recharge my brain.
Once in Chicago, we were greeted by a lot less snow than we were expecting, but a lot more enthusiasm from Alex and Noah than we had anticipated. Apparently they had foregone their naps because they were just too excited about Kasia coming. It was nice to be surrounded by family that we don’t get to see very often during the holiday season. The weather outside was frigid, and snow was in the forecast. Christmas was coming.
On Sunday we got a special surprise from Santa Claus. Kasia was having a hard time taking a nap, so she was rather tired and grumpy when he came by (how dare Santa interrupt her nap?!). She eventually got over it and learned to enjoy her My Little Pony toy that Santa had for her. In a surprise move, Santa also had gifts for all us big kids too. The guys received little bottles of good booze the girls got... well, stuff that wasn’t as nice. Santa knows. Bro’s before... well, you know the saying.
Christmas Eve was a rather mellow day. We were going to Church in the late afternoon, but aside from that, there was nothing planned. It was really nice. At church, I was amazed at how long Kasia made it through the service before we had to run off to the nursery and have her run it off. It was nice, because in the nursery, I bumped into an old friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen since high school. I’m sure glad that he remembered me, because he had changed so much that I didn’t even recognize him anymore.
On Christmas Eve, we played a game that I think was designed by my mother. It was rolling dice for presents. She had a bunch of wrapped presents, some really nice, some not, and they were the prizes for a dice rolling game. If you roll doubles, you get to pick a present. You can pick from the pile, or you can steal somebody else’s. Then after all the gifts are gone, and the time limit expires, you open whatever gifts you have left. Alex really dominated this game and in the end, everyone came out with the appropriate gifts. I’d like to tip my had to Kara, who won the grand prize, which was a gift card to Barnes and Noble. I had quite a collection of gifts to open, until a last minute rally by my opponents saw them all taken from me. I never told anyone, but I cried for hours that night because I lost all those gifts.
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