We had the added complication this year of M's weekend work and play practice schedule.
Plus the plays and music concerts and other performances to attend ourselves.
We worked around, cut back, and made-do. I let some things drop—St. Nicholas Day, St. Lucia Day, the Winter Solstice hike and fire in the woods.
No one seemed to miss the missing celebrations, and I'm not sure how to take that—be happy that my kids are easy to please or disappointed that our traditions over the years didn't make more of an impression.
We DID host our traditional Hanukkah feast with friends, on the same afternoon we brought in our tree.
C and the boys took charge of decorating said tree, while I prepared latkes, and festooned it with miles of yarn garland from E and Z's finger-knitting days.
It took me until two days before Christmas to finish hanging all our ornaments, the same day I spun like a whirlwind, baking three kinds of cookies and my first-ever yule log cake (Black Forest flavor).
And we went on a traditional family Christmas Eve hike to the river with our guests.
Followed by family and feasting and, of course, round after round of gift-opening.
The greatest gift I received was five full days off to spend doing all of that baking and decorating, and a little last-minute shopping, and, of course, doing what I love best on Christmas: hanging out at home with my kids, watching them enjoy their gifts, nibbling all day on cookies and crackers and cheese, and just being for a little while, with nowhere to go and absolutely nothing we have to do.
I hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday season, too.
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