Goodbye 2017

I have lots of thoughts on 2017, but mainly I just think it was a weird/hard/bizarre year, with a lot of fun/laughter/love thrown in to balance things out. The world we live in today is weird and polarizing, raising kids and teaching them to be good humans is hard, balancing work and home is a never ending struggle, health issues can strike anyone unexpectedly, and you never know when life's next curve ball is going to be thrown your way. I have no resolutions or goals for 2018, there is enough pressure from other parts of my life I don't need to burden myself with more metrics, deadlines, or expectations. I also don't want my kids to feel like they need to do those things either. Instead I'm going to be the best version of myself I can be, give what I have to what I can, and be okay when I need to take a break instead of check something off my list.

Having a party with some of our friends always seems to be the best way to ring in a New Year. To say goodbye to 2018 we had a potluck dinner, lots of cocktails, a glow stick dance party, drinking games, a movie, lots of dessert, a group performance of "Happy New Years to You," a few meltdowns (mainly just the children), an argument between Kieran, Clara, and Reed over who was marrying who, and some pretty adorable help ringing in 2018. It was a fun (all though VERY loud) night and a great beginning to a hopefully great year!

The Last Two Days of Christmas

Well before Christmas we planned to spend all day on the 24th with Jon's family and then all day on the 25th with my family. Sadly Grandma fell ill and was so sick she couldn't make it to our house Christmas day. We tried to make the best of it but the day wasn't what any of us had hoped for. When the boys woke up they were super excited to see their Santa bags and a present from the big guy. After trying to get some anticipatory photos we let them dig in. They were very excited by the fun loot in their bags and over the moon that Santa had remembered the 2.5 foot Batwing Superhero toy they had told him about. We had breakfast and then Grandpa and G-Momma arrived. We stayed in our pajamas, Skyped with Uncle Kyle and family, opened gifts, made ginger bread houses, and then had the minestrone soup G-Momma had made for dinner for lunch instead. After lunch we all spent a bit more time together and then G-Momma headed home while it was still light out and traffic wouldn't be too bad. We called Blingy to wish her a Merry Christmas and then Grandpa went home to take care of Grandma. Since our plans for the evening had changed drastically we decided to make the best of it. We made a nice dinner and then watched Home Alone with the boys.

The week after Christmas we were supposed to celebrate with Grandpa's side of the family. Grandma had planned on hosting at their house but had since had two allergic reactions to medications and been diagnosed with pneumonia so the party was relocated to Uncle Mark and Aunt Penny's and Grandma, sadly, once again missed out on the festivities. The boys had a great time playing with Ben and were spoiled with presents from Aunt Jana. It was fun catching up with what everyone had been doing over the holidays and nice to see Great Papa Dean up and about after a hard few months.

The First Three Days of Christmas

This year our Christmas celebrations were many, but all so fun and special. We started off the week before Christmas having C, Tio, and the kids over for dinner and to exchange gifts since they were heading out of town. We had a nice dinner, opened presents, and then the kids teamed up to defeat the Evil Uncle Jon for about 20 minutes straight.

On the Friday before Christmas Aunt Lynette and Uncle Allan hosted a party for the McClarty side of the family. For a bit it sounded like there would be no party this year and Jon and I were both bummed because we love hanging out with his family so much and don't see them often enough. Luckily it ended up happening and of course Lynette and Allan went above and beyond cooking a beautiful spread, buying gifts for all of the kids, having a Birthday cake for the four December Birthdays in the family, and of course having another unforgiving year of a White Elephant gift exchange - seriously Jon stabbed me in the back and made a deal with Allan for a gift after we had plotted something different together and Pepe refused to let anyone steal his new (somewhat feminine) scarf.

On Christmas Eve we headed to Nonna and Pepe's right after lunch. The boys got Nonna all to themselves and played and read books. After a bit Aunt Di Di, Gran, and Papa arrived. Pepe made enough food to feed at least twice the amount of people, Jon, Reed, and Kieran put on a mini Christmas concert, we had Birthday pie and Christmas pie, and were spoiled by wonderful gifts. We even managed to get the boys to stand still long enough to get a few group shots taken. After a very fun afternoon and evening we headed home to make up a plate for Santa and his reindeer and get to bed so he would visit our house.