Well, the holidays are officially over…! This year, Chanukah ended just as Christmas Eve began, so the kids had a whopping (count them) 10 days in a row of festivities and gift-opening. And, of course, we did our annual trek to Los Angeles where there were more gifts waiting for them…plus visits with family and another trip to Disneyland and our first foray into Disney’s California Adventure.
It has been an incredibly busy but wonderful winter break! And I will be sad to return to work tomorrow, not just because I’ll have to work (which I generally don’t mind, actually), but because I’m really going to miss spending time with the kids! They are so much fun to talk to and hang out with…and Chloe is still such a big snuggler and I’ve gotten spoiled by her constant company!
So, the picture above is this year’s family photo, but the celebrating began much earlier of course.
There was the first night of Chanukah which fell on the same evening as Dylan’s winter concert! It was a bit rushed, unfortunately, but we got the menorahs lit and, over the course of the following 7 nights, Chloe started learning the prayers and actually began chiming in!
For Chanukah, the kids got little gifts–a book or two (Dylan loved getting Wednesdays in the Tower!) and a Lego minifigure or two.
I actually love the way the gift-opening works out over the holidays–the kids open a small thing every day and get to enjoy it and appreciate it!
On the last night of Chanukah, we had HAKT (and H’s parents and brother) over for latkes and wine. We do our annual gift exchange with them whenever we celebrate Chanukah with them, too, and this year was no different!
As you can see, there aren’t a whole lot of presents around here! Again, a nice side effect of having little things over Chanukah (plus company holiday party Santa gives big gifts to the kids, so Tom and I are sort of off the hook!).
Taliana made hama bead gifts for everyone! This one, for Cameron, is Elsa from Frozen! She is definitely good at thinking in terms of pixels!
Dylan got Minecraft-themed hama beads!
Uncle David is always so thoughtful! Chloe got a kettle bell for kids!
These two got a lot of hair-related products (headbands, etc).
I should be better about getting a group photo…it’s nice to have everyone in one shot!
Maybe next year, I’ll get the group photo!
