A Beautiful Holiday Season

Belated Seasons Greetings Folks!

I know, I know.  The holidays are so over already (lol).  My apologies for my absence.  I've been so busy these days getting the house unpacked and co-organizing my best friend's baby shower and, when I'm not busy, I'm tired and trying to sneak in a nap here and there.  Every day I've been meaning to blog and post pictures and every day I tell myself, "Well tomorrow I'll just do 2 posts… 3 posts… 4 posts."  Tonight I said, enough is enough!  I've missed you all terribly and plus I've got so much fun and exciting stuff to share!

So the holidays came and went.  I hope everyone enjoyed theirs.  We sure did – we had a low-key, relaxing Christmas this year, just as we'd hoped for.  With the recent move and also managing our very first year of life with baby, Derek and I made the responsible (albeit bittersweet) decision not to exchange gifts this year.  It was one of the best decisions we could have made.  I have to tell you, it was so stress-free not having to frantically shop and battle the crowds.  I'm not the spring chicken that I once was, and I don't have the same stamina.  Not to mention, battling holiday crowds with a young child isn't so ideal.

Christmas was wonderful though.  We had a white Christmas here in NY and Chase was able to see (and taste) his first snow!  Omg, and this boy had so many gifts – not from Derek and I (as we refused to buy gifts for a child under one, on principle alone) but from family and friends.  He didn't understand what was going on, but he surely did know that he was Blessed.  Just grinning and chatting and things as he tore into those packages (and snacked on the paper)!

I for one am sooo looking forward to the day when he does get excited, count down the days, make his list, and bake cookies for Santa (YES, we are doing Santa). 

Aah goodness, so much preparation and anticipation and then… it's all over, lickety-split. *sigh* I'm a little sad about that.  As I'd indicated in a previous post, I'm one of those folks who like to prolong the holidays – keep decorations up for as long as possible (until it's borderline inappropriate), continue enjoying my Christmas music playlist, drive around and look at the remaining holiday lights.  Unfortunately, most of society doesn't agree with my sentiments.  It's like, come December 26th, there's nary a decoration to be seen, can't find any Christmas music on the radio, and folks are planning for their New Year celebration.  *smh* So cold. LOL

In any event, our first holiday season as a "family" was truly magical – I hope yours was special too!