All About Christmas 2021

Yes ~ it's February and I'm just blogging about Christmas 2021. But, January was a bit of a catch up month for me (including blogging about my NYC trip) because December was pretty much just about celebrating the holiday season and dealing with being pretty dang sick.

So, let me do a Christmas recap now.

In very early November, Briana and I went to our favorite pottery painting studio for Bri to paint a new coffee mug for Doug (it has been her tradition for him since she was a preschooler). We didn't paint at the studio in 2020 because of Covid, but B drew an amazing digital picture and we placed it on a mug through Shutterfly instead. Since Covid cases were pretty low in early November 2021 (before the omicron surge), we felt comfortable going to paint.

She always comes up with a cool theme (Avengers, Star Wars, Tesla, etc), and her 2021 mug theme was Lego. While she painted her mug, I painted a cute little gnome for Christmas...

Doug loved his gift on Christmas morning...

The weekend after Thanksgiving, it was time for us to look for our live Christmas tree that sits in our family room. Doug was the one to spot our tree this year (at Pike's Nursery), and he found a really pretty one. It was really leaning over, so it was deceiving as to how pretty it really was. Once he propped it up, we realized it was perfect and "our" tree...

See how it was leaning (above)?

It was perfect when we got it set up at home.

I have a process to decorating my live tree. Lights and garland go on first...

Then I add all my ornaments...

Mei Mei loves when the tree goes up...

View of my mantle and tree...

Christmas decorations around the house...

Our China-themed tree...

Briana's tree in her room...

Upstairs sitting room tree (in our master bedroom)...

Our Christmas lights outside (this is Doug's work)...

When Briana got sick right after Thanksgiving, I was very worried I would catch what she had. So, I worked as hard as I could getting the house decorated in case that happened. The end of November and first week of December I was decorating like crazy. As soon as Briana started getting over her sickness, I started coming down with mine.

We went to the "World of Illumination" drive-thru light/music display again, just like we did in 2020. We went on a Thursday evening, and at the time, I felt fine. It was fun to see all the lights again...

When we got home, I felt like I had some congestion. I thought maybe I was imagining it. I wasn't.

I woke up the next morning and I knew I was sick. I luckily had shopped very early and I had most of my presents purchased. I started wrapping gifts like mad on that Friday. It took me several hours. The only gifts I didn't get to were Doug's. By Friday night, I was done. And things went very downhill after that. I visited urgent care about 5 days after that and was diagnosed with every "itis" known to man.

Briana and I had plans with our friends Amy and Mary and Valerie and Imerie on that Sunday after I first got sick. But I couldn't make it - I felt so sick. So, the ladies took Bri along without me (thanks girls!) and I was so happy she had such a fun day with her friends. (I was super, super sad I couldn't go.)

They visited the Ponce City Market. Amy rented an "igloo" where they ate lunch and exchanged gifts and then they went ice skating. Here are some of the wonderful pictures they sent me...

The girls are so grown up now - it's bittersweet. I love seeing them flourish and grow but I miss the little girls they were at the same time...

 

I was sick for about two weeks. I spent most of it laying in my bed. I was so grateful to have a Christmas tree in my room to look at while I was trying to recover...

 

My upstairs tree has three settings ~ white lights, colored lights and both. I would switch it up often.

I would wake up in the mornings to this rainbow prism on my wall...

I hoped it was a sign that there was a light at the end of my illness.

One person that enjoyed me being sick was this one...

She spent a lot of time with me while I was sick.

While I was sick, I didn't have much of an attention span. I was coughing so much. I couldn't really even concentrate watching TV. I did manage to watch Hawkeye each week - the episodes were only about 45 minutes...

After a week and a half of being sick, I was finally feeling up to watching a full movie, "Christmas Vacation," with Doug and Bri...

I lost my voice and I was still pretty fatigued, but we managed to bake Christmas cookies a couple of days before Christmas...

I also finally took a nice picture of Briana in front of our Christmas tree...

Finally, Christmas Eve rolled around (and I did finally manage to get Doug's gifts wrapped). We had a quiet day. Doug and I watched a movie. We had a nice dinner of honeybaked ham, potato salad and chocolate pie. We put all of our gifts under the tree and it was time to go to sleep...

Christmas morning was really nice (and I was feeling a bit better but still had laryngitis) and we all exchanged gifts...

Doug and Bri made me two amazing gifts ~ wine bottles with white lights and cut wine bottles with fake succulents in them. Wine is kind of a theme with me - heh...

I mentioned in an earlier post that Briana received the jacket she admired in NY. She got a lot of nice gifts that morning, but her other big gift was a TV set for her bedroom...

She is loving it!

And one gift I gave Doug was this Lego set he really wanted...

We got ready to head to my parents' house to spend the afternoon/evening with my side of the family...

  I am pretty sure this was the first time I had put on makeup since I had gotten sick.

We had a nice time at my parents' place with my sister and her family... 

My parents got her this adorable pic for her room...

Because I was sick, we had to postpone a Christmas get together with our friends - the M family. We had already missed seeing them at Christmastime in 2020 because of the pandemic, so I wasn't going to miss 2021! So two days after Christmas, we got to spend the day with them and have a delicious belated Christmas lunch.

Briana and Chani...

Like with Mary and Imerie, seeing Briana and Chani together all grown up is so bittersweet. Friends since they were babies...

And that is my Christmas 2021 recap. Even though I was really sick and had some very, very difficult days during December, I still felt surprisingly festive when I was feeling good/better. Maybe because I managed to get my decorations up and most of my presents wrapped before I got sick. And I managed to feel better just in time for Christmas Day.

Thanks for reading about Christmas in February! Hopefully I can keep up better in 2022!

NYC Trip 2021 - Day 4 - Heading Home

It's always a bit sad when we have to leave NYC because we have a lot of fun there, but it was time to head home. Thanksgiving was coming in a few days and we had to get back to get ready for it.

Doug got up a bit early and went out to get us some Krispy Kreme Donuts for breakfast...

Then it was time to say goodbye to NY...

Goodbye W Hotel...

Back to the airport...

We sat in the sky club at Delta and had some snacks/lunch before boarding our flight...

View from sky club...

The flight was on time and smooth and we got home that evening.

As much as we enjoy traveling it is always good to come home.

Thank you for reading our 2021 NYC adventure. We have a few trips in the works for 2022 - stay tuned!

NYC Trip 2021 - Day 3 - Tavern On The Green

We Uber'd (once again) to get to Tavern on the Green that evening. We were excited to eat at this beautiful NYC iconic landmark restaurant.

Our arrival...

Once inside...

 Our food...

Everything was very tasty.

It was very lightly raining that evening, so no one was outside under the sparkly lanterns of the restaurant. After we ate, Doug asked the waitress (who was terrific - super sweet) if we could walk outside and take a look at them. She said of course and we headed outside. It was so nice that no one was out there!

It was truly beautiful...

I could imagine having a special event out there - like a wedding reception. So pretty.

We stopped in the gift shop quickly before heading back to the hotel.

And that was it - our amazing day.

We were heading home the next day.

NYC Trip 2021 - Day 3 - Hamilton

It was finally that time! Time to see "Hamilton!"

 We were so excited walking to the theater...

We were assigned a time for arrival based on where our seats were located, but that pretty much went out the window. No one was following that policy.

The entrance to the theater was super small and we were wall to wall people. I know we were all vaccinated and masked, but it still was a little too close for comfort for me. I was happy to get to my seat.

We were fifth row center!! 

I overheard someone behind me talking about how it was a nightmare to get to the restrooms during intermission because there was only one mens room and one ladies room (each bathroom had a number of stalls - but still). So I wasn't looking too forward to that.

Luckily, our seats were super close to the restroom. When intermission came, I jumped up, ran to restroom and got in line quickly. Other women weren't so lucky. The line literally snaked all around the theater. Two ladies got into an argument because I think one was trying to cut in line. Women are vicious when they have to tinkle! LOL!

 *****************

 The performance was AMAZING! There's nothing like Broadway.

We didn't realize it, but understudies filled in for both the Hamilton role and the Aaron Burr role that afternoon. We had no idea at the time because they were still so good.

This was our Hamilton...

This was our Aaron Burr (he fills in as Hamilton sometimes as well)...

The whole cast was phenomenal (pics snagged from internet)...

We really hoped to see Evan Morton that afternoon as King George because he is so amazing. And he was there! (He is the father of actor Iain Armitage who plays Young Sheldon)...

At one point during his first song, he was singing and playing to the audience and talked and looked right at Doug! I guess were pretty close to him! Very cool!

 It was an amazing show and an amazing experience.

I had been quite worried we would get up to NYC and the show would be cancelled due to Covid. A couple of weeks later, the omicron variant hit and that's exactly what happened. I am so grateful we got up to NY before the variant hit Broadway and that it didn't happen to us.

It was dinnertime when we finished with the show, and Doug had dinner reservations for us at Tavern on the Green.

That is next...