The 2023 holiday season was lovely and included time with all our people.
Christmas landing on a Monday conveniently extended the holiday through the weekend. My family (Mom, Marty, Erin, Levi and Ari) came up Friday afternoon for an early celebration. We had beef tenderloin, played games and the kids learned the joys of a fart machine. Christmas Eve was on Sunday, so church was first thing in the morning. After church we celebrated with the Hights and did Christmas Eve dinner at Grammy and Grandpapa's.
The boys got Apple Watches as their main gift. Hazel, a Furby and Karaoke machine. Santa righted last year's wrong and delivered her the reindeer stuffie she requested. I decided not to make cinnamon rolls from scratch and nobody noticed, so I'm officially laying that time consuming tradition to rest. Without large toys to assemble, Ty and I were in bed before 11pm on Christmas Eve, a first for the Rallos. After Christmas morning at home in our matching pajamas, we hosted the Leitz/Rallos/Kellers for Christmas dinner.
Chris and Kari spent the night and after a scene similar to the family leaving for the airport in Home Alone, we were packed and on our way to the Cove slightly after lunch time the next day. Our time there was packed with Wonka at the historic Ruby theatre, the Barbie movie in the home theater the kids created, cosmic bowling, night skiing and lots of cousin time.
We came home from the Cove Friday and I worked Saturday/Sunday. It was a busy and shitty few shifts. I came home from work at nine on NYE and the kids decided they wanted to stay up until midnight. We rented the new Trolls movie and everyone made it! We blasted confetti poppers at 12:01 and everyone was in bed by 12:15.
At the end of it all I was exhausted. Working two days in a row and then staying up until midnight set me over the edge. In years past we've rung in the New Year at 9 pm, which is a much more reasonable bedtime when starting the day at 4:50am. Beginning a new year in the CICU has historically been inspiring and I was disappointed by the physical and emotional drain I felt on my New Year's shift there.
Also, cleaning. The wrapping paper, loot of new things, dishes, washing/changing sheets and prepping meals is a lot. I wholeheartedly embrace the messes of a beautiful life but it required significant energy to orchestrate it all. It took two full weeks to recover my energy back to baseline. I, of course, wouldn't trade any of it and am incredibly grateful for the large tribe of people we have to celebrate with and the chaotic, mess filled, sacred memories created.
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