christmas in july…kinda

it seems fitting that while we’re in the first heat wave of the summer, i’m still recapping christmas and new year’s.  heh.

anyway, we got home from new york and jumped right into the holidays.  luckily, i’d made sure that most of our presents had been ordered and wrapped before we left because i just knew that waiting till the last minute would bite me in the ass big time.

this meant that i didn’t have to stress out and got to just relax and enjoy my favorite time of year.  well, and gather supplies to make hot chocolate pudding shots for the family party:

as always, it was fun to spend time with my family - playing games, sharing food and drinks, handing out gifts.  and because we decided to push up the gift exchange to 10pm instead of the usual midnight, everyone was able to get home at a decent time to go to bed and let santa do his thing.

we all got up on christmas morning at a fairly decent time, and the first thing we did before we dove into the stockings and presents was to get the hub to finally put the star on top of the tree.

and of course, i set up the tripod so we could get our annual family pajamas christmas morning photo.

and then finally it was time to tear into the piles of gifts that were waiting under the tree.

the bean has been asking for a human sized dog bed for a couple of years now, and this time santa came through.  of course, all of the actual dogs wanted to share the space with them too.

well, okay - i might have given it a try too.  it’s really comfy.

and the old lady was the very happy recipient of a new peloton bike.

i was a pretty happy camper myself.

we had fun tearing through a box from MIL, who’d sent us individual gifts as well as this fun care package of adorable mini toys.

we had the traditional tater tot breakfast casserole and then it was time for the kids to head out to spend time with several different family groups.

christmas dinner was just for the three of us, and i busted out the tried-and-true lawry’s recipes again.

a few days later, we hosted a fun new year’s party with the bean’s friends and their families for the first time since 2019.  it was a blast, and the kids all played games while the rest of us hung out in the back yard and chatted and got caught up on everyone’s lives.

and then it was time to say goodbye to santa…till next year! well…i guess we’ll actually see him again in about five months.

new year's is for the dogs (literally)

much like the last few new year's eves, we kept it super low-key and stayed home.  the old lady and the old man, being child-free 20-somethings, did go out with friends with the help of the hub who acted as their uber for the night (rideshares are insanely pricey on NYE, as one would imagine).  

we'd headed to our local japanese market earlier in the day and picked up all the goodies to do some DIY sushi rolls, which the bean was pretty excited about.  while the hub stood at the counter, slicing up all of the fish, he had quite the captive audience.

and he did a fantastic job as our sushi chef - check out this platter of fresh sashimi!

while we were happy to snack on some of that deliciousness as-is, the bean had also been looking forward to trying out the new sushi making set they'd gotten for christmas.  the old lady had seen it on instagram, and thanks to the magic of amazon prime i'd ordered it four days before christmas and still got in time to wrap and put under the tree.

so you just spread some rice out on each half of the maker, top with all the goodies, insert the pusher and snap it closed.  then you push it out onto a sheet of nori and voila:

as for me, i wanted to have some seared pepper salmon and took out our trusty little cooking torch to get the job done.

we stuffed ourselves silly with a ton of sushi, and then we had some of these peanut butter-stuffed pretzels that i'd made earlier in the evening.  

the dogs were all snoozing way before midnight, although june was the last holdout with all that puppy energy in full effect.  eventually though, she finally passed out too.

one last family selfie for 2022:

and then juney woke up in time to join our first family selfie of 2023.

the next day, while the hub went off to do some 4x4'ing with friends the kids and i headed out to little tokyo to have some delicious udon at our new favorite place.  of course, since it was a holiday we ended up waiting for awhile before we were seated.

but was it worth the wait?  oh yes.

happy new year indeed.

the quietest week of the year

the week between christmas and new year's was pretty quiet for the most part.  the day after christmas was particularly lovely and relaxing, as i threw on the new hello kitty sweatshirt i'd received in our family gift exchange:

and then i realized that it was the perfect time for me to finally cast on a knitting project that i'd meant to start in the fall, only i had zero time for it.  it was so nice to sit on the couch and just work on the colorful cardigan in the softest, prettiest yarn i've worked with thus far.

we had lots of leftovers from christmas dinner, which made for an extra tasty lunch that i shared with the bean.  of course, teddy was nearby and hoping we'd drop a little morsel on the floor for him (we may have.  okay, we definitely did).

on another day we met up with one of the bean's most favorite friends in the whole world for a quick lunch.

and we managed to get our dance girlfriends together for a post-christmas cookie party.  i got to throw together a hot cocoa board which went over pretty well, i thought.

there were cookies to decorate, and we spread out all of our bracelet making supplies for the girls to make new pretties to wear.  and of course, we got them together for the annual photo - with the old lady grinning in the background.

we squeezed in one last trip to disneyland for 2021, timing our arrival for dinner at the plaza inn before hopping over to california adventure to use up our last few sip & savor tabs at the festival of holidays for dessert.

and then we crossed the esplanade again to catch the fireworks show at disneyland, something we'd been wanting to do for weeks.  it was a great way to close out our year at the 'land.

the next day, the hub and i unboxed our new mattress.  exciting stuff, i tell ya.

when i got the peloton in august, i'd set a goal to make sure i joined the century club before the end of the year.  and i'd timed my peloton classes so that i was doing my 100th ride on new year's eve.  BOOM.

with the old lady feeling a bit under the weather and no other plans for the evening, we rang in 2022 quietly - just the dogs and the three of us.

but that's okay.  there's lots for us to look forward to in the new year, and with the holiday season behind us all of our attention is on the big wedding.  it's coming up really fast, and it'll be here before we know it.