What I Got Up To Over the Holidays

WOW!! Does anyone else still feel like they are getting back on their feet after the whirlwind of the holidays?! I know it’s already the middle of January but it seems like I have been away from work for six months when in reality it was only TWO WEEKS!! It was such a nice break and so well deserved for the company. I like to give the girls two weeks off over the holidays to decompress, spend time with their friends and family and get geared up for the year ahead because we all know it’s pedal to the medal when we get back! LOL!

My first week of Christmas break was EVERYTHING I hoped for and anticipated. It was MAGICAL, to say the least. Honestly, it was EXACTLY how I wanted to spend it. We laid low, slowly finished our Christmas shopping then eagerly awaited Chrismas to roll around. On Christmas Eve we went to church for Mass with Justin’s family and my family. After Mass, my mom and dad came over to the house and we spent Christmas morning and ALL day together as a family with the kids. It’s been so long since I’ve had that quality time with just my parents (and of course, Justin, the kids, and both dogs! lol) on Christmas Day. It was so perfect I could cry just thinking about it.

Christmas morning was honestly so perfect. Justin surprised me with a trip to Disneyland (I cried and kept having to pinch myself!!), my mom and dad surprised me with a jump drive FILLED with all of our old family home videos and my mom drew the most beautiful picture of Leo and gifted it to me. It was a morning filled with the most incredible sentimental gifts and so much love and gratitude. The kids were even on their best behavior, it was a slow morning and exactly what we all needed.

Later that evening we all went over to Tori’s for Christmas dinner! It was nice to have the slow morning then get together with everyone in the evening. All of the kids were able to hang out and play together and all of us adults reminisced and sipped on wine and obviously ate wayyyy too much food! It was the perfect way to end the perfect day.

On Boxing Day we laid low and did a gift exchange with Justin’s parents. We all got ice skates from them which was such a great family gift! Not to mention, they brought all of Justin’s old hockey gear with them which was so nostalgic! Justin’s Uncle also brought an old train with him (which he has had for 20 years!!) and set it up for Leo and Annie under our Christmas Tree. However, as we were setting it up we noticed a part of it wasn’t working anymore then we remembered my dad had bought Leo a train last year so we ran downstairs and found it and pieced both sets together and it worked BEAUTIFULLY!! It was so cool to mix something old from Justin’s family together along with something new from my family and watch it work in unison so flawlessly.

The day after Boxing Day it was a mad panic to get all of our Christmas decor down and packed up as we were heading to Disneyland the NEXT DAY! I got quite a bit of flack from people who weren’t impressed that we cleaned everything up so fast but frankly, we didn’t have had any other time to do it and I didn’t want to come home to a pile of needles laying on our floor from a dried-out Blue Spruce! LOL! So, Christmas was cleaned up in ONE DAY!

While it was a bit of a rush to get everything cleaned up and put away (normally I leave my tree up until after New Year) it was worth it because I didn’t have to worry about that at all while we were away and that allowed me to soak up EVERY magical moment in Disneyland!! For those who want to check out our trip to Disneyland, make sure to check out my Disney highlights over on my Instagram page! Also, I’ll be sharing ALL of my Disneyland tips and tricks with you in an upcoming blog!

Stay tuned!

xo

Jilly