All About The Christmas Season

As the holiday season crept closer and closer this year, I felt a lot of stress and pressure about how it was all going to "look." Months before, I knew it was going to be different - it was going to have to be. Our family of three wanted to remain very vigilant. That meant having to do things alone, having to say no to some things and having to set some boundaries for safety. Everyone was very respectful of our choices, and Doug, Bri and I ended up making Christmas work for us. It was happy and safe. Despite this being a super difficult year, the Christmas season ended up being quite enjoyable for us. It was different and we were definitely sad to miss things that we are used to doing each year, but overall, it was nice. I am confident calling it a "win."

 Here is my mantel with the fireplace on...

And a couple more pictures of decorations around the house...

So what did we do throughout December (besides shopping online, wrapping presents and decorating the house)?

Briana decorated a gingerbread house...

We baked and decorated Christmas (and Hanukkah) cookies...

Besides making the traditional candy canes, nutcrackers, Santa and presents, Bri made a vampire minion and Doug made Pac M@n and a ghost. That says Christmas, doesn't it?

And yes, she did eat the minion cookie!! LOL!!

Bri had her friend Jackson (who is in our social "bubble") come over one afternoon to visit and they exchanged gifts...

In mid-December, Doug, Bri and I visited a drive-thru Christmas light display that was synchronized to music. I had to buy tickets online in advance, and due to the number of people and slow nature of the show, it took about an hour to wait in line before we finally got to the starting point. But once we were in and driving through, it was so worth it. We drove through for about a half an hour and it was amazing...

 

Check out these videos...

It was really something to see! 

 

We have really enjoyed our new home theater during the holiday season.

 

Of course, we had to watch Christmas Vacation...

 

 And Bri and I finally watched "D!e Hard" with Doug for the very first time...

I know, I know. How is it possible that I had never seen "D!e Hard" before? I don't know, but I never had. And it is one of Doug's favorite movies. Doug, Bri and I had been having THE debate about whether it is an actual Christmas movie or not. Doug is in the definite "yes" camp. Bri and I can now make an informed decision, and Bri landed in the "no" camp. As for me, I am on the fence. It is set at Christmastime, but I didn't get big time Christmas vibes from it. I liked it a lot, but it's pretty violent. I can see people saying it's a Christmas movie, but I am not sure I felt it.

Due to the pandemic, D, B and I decided maintain social distancing and saw some friends and family outside and masked before Christmas Day...

Waiting for my friend Amy to drop off a gift one afternoon...

Dropping off gifts at my sister's house one afternoon and visiting for a short while...

My mom dropped off gifts at my house before Christmas, and I didn't get a chance to take a picture of her tree. So, she e-mailed me one. I definitely missed opening gifts at her house on Christmas Day this year...

My sister gave me this early Christmas present - Mei dressed as a queen (so awesome and funny!)...

Gifts from my friends Val and Amy...

My parents gave me this beautiful jewelry box...

When Bri and I went to drop off gifts at my sister's house, Mei was very sad and looked out the window after we left (picture courtesy of Doug)...

She is so used to us being around all the time now. She always hated when we left her, but now it is even worse!

Christmas Eve finally arrived. It started out raining that day, but then the temps dipped, the rain turned into snow flurries. It was really nice. Doug and I watched "Scrooge" in the morning, we exchanged some Christmas Eve gifts that afternoon and ate a nice Christmas Eve dinner...

All the gifts ready for the morning...

Finally, Christmas morning arrived (yule log on the TV)...

Bri made out like a bandit...

 

It was definitely Mand@lorian themed this year...

Briana drew the "Animaniacs" for Doug and I helped her put them on a mug. When Doug opened his gift, he actually thought Bri had just bought the mug in a store - we had to tell him she drew the characters herself...

And I had to get him a "Schitt's Creek" gift of course!

Doug gave me this amazing map that is now hanging in our basement. We placed straight pins in it showing all the places where Doug, Bri and I have visited in the world, and we will add pins when we visit new places...

Mei loved her new Christmas gift too...

Though we didn't have our traditional Christmas this year, thanks to technology (Facetime, phone calls, texting), we were able to touch base with our loved ones anyway.

The day after Christmas, I cleaned up a bit - but I mainly rested. All the stress, excitement, busyness and anxiety of the holiday completely caught up with me. Looking forward to decompressing this week - though I always feel some sort of anxiety. Which is a big bummer.

Thanks for reading all about our Christmas.

I will write one last post on 2020 in a day or two. I need to figure out the best way to wrap this crappy year up!