The First Noel

As my friends and I get married, have babies, live far from home, we struggle with where to spend the holidays.  Which family?  Do we travel to both?  Jason and I have traveled for every Christmas except one since we've been married.  It's exhausting and I've been saying, "once we have kids, we are staying home and making grandparents travel to us"

Well, we have 1 kiddo and we still traveled...

But next year we will stay at home and make our own traditions.  Everyone hold me accountable :)

We started our Christmas vacation on Thursday, making the trek north with baby and dog. It was amazing to spend 5 days straight as a family.  Jason and Evie had some quality bonding time without that silly thing called work to interrupt their time.  Evie transitioned beautifully sleeping through the night (between 10-12 hours) every night.  Parker was in dog heaven with extra loving hands to pet him and leather furniture.

Most of our stay involved food- it is the holidays after all.  We snarfed up 3 courses of homemade fondue on Friday night.  Great idea by Poppop after discovering the fondue pot in the basement. Even Evie was a chow hound during the holidays.  She stopped sucking her thumb as much while eating, allowing the spoon in my easily.  

We ate Christmas Eve dinner with the Stefany clan- my Aunt and Uncle from NH, Nana, and us.  It was nice to bring Evie to Nana's retirement home to meet all the lovely people that have been praying for her health for months.

Christmas Day was spent at G and Poppop's with the Stefany clan again. As you will see in the pictures, Evie was curious of the ribbon and wrapped gifts.  She put most gifts into her mouth. Even though it was her first Christmas, I didn't see the need to go overboard with gifts.  She doesn't understand the meaning of Christmas nor gifts.  She received a nice assortment of clothes, books, and toys. 

There is something special about going home.  I have lost myself during this difficult time and being back at my parents' house surrounded by the things that made me me, really rejuvenated me.  It was nice to walk Evie and Parker in a big neighborhood with sidewalks and walk past my elementary school.  Sitting down and playing the piano brought back so many funny memories of being silly with my sister and my mom yelling at me to "play it right!".  Playing music was such a big part of my life and I haven't played either instrument since I left college.  Darn you American Pie for making fun of banders and making me slightly ashamed of my past.  And even seeing my puzzles in the basement closet made me smile.  Spending 2 nights with my longest standing friend confirmed that it is possible to stay connected with friends for 20 plus years WITHOUT Facebook.

All 4 of us left Lancaster with renewed spirits for 2012.

And sadly no Lady Gaga sightings in Lancaster.  She is dating someone that graduated from a Lancaster high school.  She bought a house about 5 miles north of my parents.  She has been seen in local pubs and grocery stories.  Bummer.  I need to do my research on what she looks like without her costumes.  First one of the Bachelors was from my old high school, now Gaga.  Lancaster is the happening place to live!

Happy 2012 everyone!

Christmas 2011 - Lancaster