Christmas Time

This isnt a particularly horsey post, just some thoughts I wanted to write down :)

Its that time of year. Christmas/New Years/Holidays. Ironically, a time of year usually associated with a lot of stress.

The norm for me is to feel the pressure this time of year. I am not really sure why, but it isnt usually a good time for me. This year surprised me though. I felt really good leading up to the holidays, and Christmas and all its kerfuffle ended up being a really joyful experience - Just like its SUPPOSED to be!!!!!

My family really likes Christmas - my mom and sister LOVE to celebrate and decorate to the MAX! I am basically the polar opposite. I have one snow man stuffed fellow who sits on my couch [all year actually, I just like him] and thats it. No tree, no extras, nothing. Too much is overkill for me. I like watching my specials on tv, I like my snow man, but for now, I am happy with my second decoration-less christmas :) I think it helped me be really happy and excited for everything because I wasnt 'done' with it before it even happened.

This year me and my sister went to do our Christmas baking at my moms on the Friday before Christmas. It was really fun! We decorated the tree, we reminisced over all of our old ornaments and school crafts, we colored - one of our traditions - and we baked EVERYTHING!!!! Soooooo many cookies and tasty things :)

It turned out to be a wicked snow storm day, so we ended up spending the night at moms, which made the whole experience that much more fun and nostalgic. Even driving home the next morning was really dicey - it was a lot of freezing rain, which is my ultimate winter nemesis!

The weekend after baking was spent mostly trapped indoors, as the rain continued for two days. Yuck! Ice Storm, mini version! The ponies were less than impressed, to be sure!

Christmas eve dawned sunny and COLD. -20ish. But still my FAVORITE part of Christmas. Cousin Christmas day! For the last nine years, since our families kind of stopped doing things together, me, my sister and our two cousins our age have made our own Christmas together. This year was no exception, and as always, when the four of us get together, things get epic! Christmas Intensifies, most certainly! The show stopper of this years shin-dig was certainly the present me and Tanya made for Crystal - we made her her own version of Monopoly - Crystalopoly! We worked really hard on it, and were really proud of it. I think she loved it as much as we did :) We all had a great time playing it, and then subsequently laughed our butts off playing Cards Against Humanity.

After a late night at Tanya's Christmas eve, we got up early to go to Moms for the super yummy Christmas breakfast, featuring my very favorite crepes!! YUM! Then, after a fantastic visit at moms, with Grammie and Grampie, Derek and I headed up to his parents for his family get together. Following the trend of awesome, the afternoon/evening there was also a resounding success and joy. We brought Varo, and he was a total doofus, as always.

We came home with lots of chocolate, treats and amazing thoughtful gifts :) Then on Boxing day, my dad came over with Tanya and we had another great adventure day. We tried to go to St Huberts for Lupper, only to find out it was closed :( Scores was a great second choice though, so it all worked out in the end and we all had fun!

Such was my really good Christmas marathon this year!

Now if only the ridiculous layer of ice could leave so the horses can walk over snow without hurting and I could maybe ride :)

:)
S