Christmas Past

The bustle of Christmas has passed. It's so fun when the kids wake up on Chirstmas Day, we can hear them whispering under the tree about the presents Santa has left. They stay there for a long time, not waking us, just whispering to each other in excited tones about who has the biggest present, how many there are, that he ate the cookies and drank the milk. Ric and I have to yell out to them and ask if Santa came before they'll come into our room. They can hardly stand to wait for us to pee before starting to divy out the gifts. I guess the craziness of the month is worth that morning really.

My favorite part of Christmas though is the deneument. There's no more errands, no more stops at the post office. It's such a quiet time when the kids are home with new things to do, Ric is home and we can just hang out. Looking forward to a new year with new beginnings.

This Christmas was particularly nice since we didn't travel and Ric ended his job the same friday the kids finished school. So he was home with us the whole time and will be until Jan 10 when he'll leave for Tampa.

So yesterday we came up to the condo in Keystone to spend the rest of the week together skiing. Even though we've been home all together the past 10 days, there's still a lot of distractions with cleaning, going back and forth to the gym (for Ric and I), lots of napping (not complaining there), Ric getting ready for his move, and just the pull of the household chores and projects. Here in the mountains there's really none of the same distractions. We ski together, hang out at Starbucks afterward, hit the pool and hot tub together while dinner cooks, and we eat together. It's very ritualistic here and I think that's part of why the kids love it. We do the same things each day, the time is always spent together and it's fun and without any other chores to get in the way.

It'll be a nice way to spend the week before Ric has to move. Compressing our time and forcing the togetherness. Sometimes that's just necessary. Now I have start our ski day!