I’m a bit of a Scrooge.

This comes up every year, and yet somehow, watching our kids experience the holidays melts my heart and brings me back to a true affection for the holidays. So I’m now I’ve gone from bah humbug to doing a beautiful tree with their help, going to the Nutcracker and decorating cookies. It’s totally a cliche, but we’re rediscovering the holiday magic through the kids’ eyes.

Part of this anti-cheer is not having all the answers about how we handle Santa (all gifts? Some? Stockings? What about at Sassy’s house?) or the whole religious side of things. We’re the Christmas and Easter church-goers at best, and don’t really have a church home. Scrambling at Christmas feels weird. (For the record, we chose well this year even if Sassy disagreed.)

Despite the uncertainties, this holiday was awesome. Tess and Remy were super into every bit of it, all of the kids were thrilled about presents and cookies, and doing Christmas Eve at our house meant the kids weren’t wrecks for Christmas Day. Amazing!

They got lots of art stuff, legos, blocks, and kid programming toys, so post-Christmas they’ve been delightfully engrossed in projects. And we’re getting lots of family time. That’s what it’s really about anyway. Add in a quick jaunt to Florida with sassy and poppi, and you have an all around phenomenal end to the year. Tess in particular was over the moon to be back at the ocean.

For New Years, a bunch of close friends came over. We feasted, laughed, toasted, and let the kids run wild. 2017 started with a sleepy bunch, but happy. As we puttered around the kitchen and sipped our fourth coffees, Dave and I were definitely reveling in all things December being behind us and the great expanse of 2017 ahead. Let the adventures continue!