Happy Holidays Part II

I’m pleased to be getting this post up BEFORE the New Year (go me)!  I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season! We made it through exhausted but really happy and grateful for wonderful family and friends. I will pick up where I left off on in my last holiday festivity post starting with Christmas cookie baking at Nana’s.

Of course like everything else around these parts, there is a back story to my Christmas cookie baking. It all started when my husband became a manger at his job in 2010. I started baking cookies for his team then, blissfully unaware of the challenges ahead. He works in a very high paced, sometimes stressful environment and I wanted to do something nice for the guys who work so hard for him so I figured I’d make them Christmas cookies. Sounded simple enough, although that year I found out what a true labor of love making several different kinds of cookies in one day can be. Still, I went through with it and all 5 employees loved their cookies. Fast forward a few years, we had a baby and there went from 5 employees to 15 just in his department alone. Believe it or not, with a 6 month old in tow, I made Christmas cookies that year and even the year after that. Finally last year, I remembered how tiring and difficult it was and I “retired” from baking. (Last year was also the year I didn’t get out my Christmas cards…opps) Anyways, somehow this year, I felt the need to spread extra holiday cheer and so I was back in the cookie business! I couldn’t make enough for the now 50 people who work at the place but I was going to at least make enough for my husband’s employees. The only problem…our oven broke a few weeks back :( so an activity that secretly stresses me out and has me crying into a bottle of cheap wine afterwards from exhaustion was suddenly going to have to be shared with another adult. Enter Nana.

It was actually a little less stressful at Nana’s house since her kitchen is a lot bigger and she has a large dining table to use. Emma and Nana really enjoyed cutting out the cookie shapes and decorating the sugar cookies while mommy ran around making a million other batches. In the end, we ended up with two batches of sugar cookies, two batches of peanut butter/ chocolate cookies, two batches of double fudge cookies, a batch of easy bake Christmas tree cookies (what you think I was going to make them all “from scratch” lol), a batch of chocolate chip (that burned), and a batch of chocolate peppermint.  I bagged them up and proceeded to pass out the minute I got home.

That same evening (thank goodness for a nap), was our ugly sweater party! An old college friend of mine throws holiday parties with a theme every year. One year it was a crazy Christmas hat theme. Another year was dress up like your favorite Christmas character (that coincidentally was the year I dressed up as Mary to announce I was pregnant). We had a lot of fun finding authentic ugly sweaters at the thrift store for this year’s theme. I was super excited to find Emma one too! (Although, it is actually kind of a cool sweater.) Thomas ended up making his own sweater with ornaments and stuffed animals sewn on which was awesome and then didn’t end up wearing it in favor of his cool, store bought, local brewery sweater.

Stop…..birthday party time….

Our next event was a sweet little 4 year old birthday party for some family friends. The one shot I got of the party is of the awesome, dairy free, homemade cake from the birthday girl’s mom that I dreamed about since last year’s party. I literally had two bites of cake left I couldn’t eat and I brought it home with me to eat later. It was THAT good!

Then on Tuesday, at 11am (because EVERYONE is totally available mid-day on a Tuesday…) was Emma’s Christmas Pageant. I was so excited we got there early and nabbed the coveted “front row” seat (behind the rows where the kids sat). The kids looked so cute dressed up! Emma’s class was shepherds. They had pillow cases on their heads with head bands holding them up. I about died of cuteness overload! Maybe it’s because Emma is a little older or maybe she was just in the mood to perform, but she actually sang all the songs and enjoyed herself! No random nudity like the Spring show of 2015! My only bone to pick with the whole ordeal was that some over eager father decided it would be cool to position himself right in front of Emma to record his son on his phone. I was like um yeah if you want to record your child I have no problem with that but for the love of all things go and stand in front of your own kid to do it! I wonder how many other parents now have this guy on their phone recordings for all eternity. (I know one who does).

Finally Christmas Eve came and with it, the cousins. They were wild and crazy just like kids are supposed to be. I was only really nervous when the dads left to pick up the pizza and I was left alone with three energetic kids. I survived thankfully, nothing was broken, and no one was hurt, so I can safely say I have moved up to level expert when it comes to watching multiple kids at once… maybe. They were actually surprisingly well behaved, just naturally curious and excited to be in a new environment with "new to them" toys.

We ate, opened presents, and watched a movie. The time flew by. Pretty soon it was time for Emma to go to bed so Santa could come. Santa, I heard, was very well organized and prepared this year (he usually is). So there was not much to do except to set everything up. Santa, having once been a visual merchandiser, is a creative sort of fellow around our neck of the woods. He loves setting up wonderful toy displays. He wants everything to look extra magical and was raised in a household were Christmas gifts were not wrapped. He really enjoyed that and has thus carried on the tradition for the Patterson family.

He went a bit overboard this year and fulfilled requests from Emma’s grandpa and great grandma to put something under the tree for her since they could not visit. This is also the year that maybe “Santa” went overboard because he was really hoping to have two kids to receive presents but instead probably over spoiled the one child.

Emma didn’t mind though. She got her guitar and her dinosaurs which is all that mattered. A sled and a horsie to ride were bonuses and you can never have too many books!  I also have it on good authority that Santa hand made the star stage for Emma using cardboard and wrapping paper. Oh that crafty old Saint Nick!

We completed the holiday with a stop to Nana’s house Christmas night and another stop to Mimi’s house that Sunday. I had pretty much stopped taking pictures at that point and eating cookies too for that matter. The truth is, even with Emma being cranky at the end of every day without napping, and me being bombarded with demanding toddler requests for a week, I found myself on Sunday night feeling very sad to be going back to work on Monday. I sometimes think Emma and I both get a little tired of being together for long stretches of time but Emma made it clear to me that she would rather hang out with me every day then go back to school, which stung…a lot. I haven’t felt working mom guilt in a long time and man did that hit me in the feels. I think next year if I can, I will take off an extra couple of days around holiday time. I’m also not sure if I will schedule as many activities next year but I think we all experienced enough to make lasting holiday memories together as a family.

PS. Below are toliet paper roll carolers Emma made for us as a Christmas present at school. I have never cried over small cardboard tubes so much. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!