2009 Holiday Recap

This year was one of the best holiday seasons that I can remember having in a LONG time.  Crammed full of holiday parties and get-togethers, it was a total whirlwind of activity.  Here are the highlights of my holiday season:

My work party was held at Muldoon's Dublin Pub. Great food (including appetizers) and free drinks. I always look forward to this party so I can taste the wassails. Shaun and I both sang, of course.   The following week we had our in-office party, complete with white elephant gift exchange (I got fishing ornaments...yay?). Shaun made the party more festive by using the Pandora app on his iPhone, and filled the room with Christmas music.

(pic of me and my husband at Muldoon's:)

Next up was a reunion of sorts.  In high school, I was a member of the Swing Choir (a singing/dancing performance group).  We were a pretty tight-knit "family," and our choir teacher would hold holiday parties at her house, where we'd also go caroling around the neighborhood. Now that it's been well over 10 years since my high school days, I've found that Facebook is a wonderful tool which has helped keep many of us Swing Choir members in touch with one another.  This season, of my high school buddies organized a surprise party at our former teacher's house.  It was nice to gather with everyone in person once again, watch our old performances on video (scary) and reminisce about old times.  We even went caroling next door, which was an experience in and of itself. The neighbor invited us into his home and asked us all to gather around his Christmas tree, where he videotaped our "performance." (Less freaky than it sounds, I swear!) We moved this guy to tears! After we sang, he asked if we wanted a beer, or pizza, or anything else... and even invited us back for a party he was having the upcoming Saturday. Now that was a friendly neighbor.

(my former teacher, answering the door, and surprised to see us all caroling outside:)

scary flashbacks...

looking thru our music, old choir photos, caroling, sharing a beer or two, and me with lawn decor:

the next highlight of the season was the Newport Beach Boat Parade. I've told myself for YEARS now that I would see this "someday"... My friends and I finally got smart about it and carved out some time well in advance, buying advance tickets. We went thru Goldstar.com and got discount tickets to actually RIDE on one of the boats that were IN the parade itself... a cool way to get up close with all the other decorations and get a tour of the bay area.

It was mass confusion for a while, though. Traffic was HORRIBLE getting there.  It seemed like everyone had decided to be there that night. And as if finding a parking space at the beach isn't difficult enough, try having an event like this. Bleh. I ended up having to drive waaaaaaaaayy past the site and find parking in the residential area.  Thank goodness for my iPhone, though. I used the map feature to find my way back to the boat area, which was (according to google maps) 1.8 miles away. SHEESH! Loaded down with my camera bag, heavy jacket and trapper hat, I made my way there. (Luckily my friends were kind enough to give me a ride back to my car after it all...)

I met Jen and Michelle there, and we didn't have to wait all that long before we were directed to our boat for the evening (and all the passengers were paraded down the block to get there).  It was fun. I forgot my glasses, so I saw a lot of colorful blurs. (oops.) We followed a boat that had music on it, so it was even more festive.  And when we got too far away from that boat to hear it, I turned on Pandora for a while so we could hear the Christmas tunes. It was a neat experience but after a while, I was DONE. You know... you can only see so many colored lights on so many boats and be impressed. We were headed back to the harbor to dock, but other boats were taking up space doing the same. So our captain said that he'd take us out for another half-hour. Joy? We finally started heading back, and then the captain almost hit a post. Seriously.

Finally... it got to be Christmas Eve! We were at my mom's house by 3:00 for our celebration with that side of my family.  Oh joy of joys... my mom asked forced us to go caroling. (ugh.) No one there really likes to do it (and she knows it). And we don't know her neighbors. And it wasn't even dark outside. But we did it anyways, to make her happy. (And it helped that a few of us had a couple of shots of "liquid courage" ahead of time, too... )

faces we make while caroling:

Then it was time for the white elephant gift exchange. Why? Another thing my mom gets a kick out of.  Dinner was good...and interesting. None of the traditional foods were present. Instead, my mom thought it would be "easier" and "festive" to cook Mexican food. Alrighty, then. I mean, I'm not complaining because I LOVE Mexican food. But it was just weird.

Then we opened these cursed little silver boxes... one for each of us... Why cursed? A few years back, my mom had a wonderful idea for us to write down on a piece of paper what we would like to see happen over the next year. It was great... in theory. Because, flash forward to a year later, and having those little pieces of paper read ALOUD, we were reminded of some things that had never come to be. And some of what was written down had been of very personal nature and it was difficult to hear our "failures" and shortcomings read aloud for all to hear. The "rules" for the boxes have been tweaked each time, but every year it is still a bit strange and disheartening. This year we were supposed to write down something that we are grateful for...hopefully this will be SAFE to hear about next time around.

Finally, opening our gifts is always my favorite part of the night... not because I want to receive a lot, but I really enjoy seeing others' reactions when they open the gifts I have chosen for them. It's blissful. Since we chose names this year rather than buying for ALL, things went a little bit quicker than normal.

strange faces:

After my mom's house, we made a mad dash over to my in-laws' place, where we had our second dinner of the night. Then a very special treat; the kids put on a SHOW for us. It was their own idea, and they'd put the whole thing together themselves, complete with tickets. It was wonderful to watch and even brought a few tears to my eyes.  Grace played her clarinet, Laura played piano (she had taught herself a few songs just for this occasion), and Michael conducted them both.  Then they all sang together.  And Michael even did some acting out of the words.  It was freakin hilarious, and I loved it so much!

The kids started getting anxious; they were counting down the minutes till present time. It's tradition in this family to wait till midnight to open presents; however, they "cheat" and count it as time when it hits midnight in Colombia, where most of the rest of their family still is. So, we pretty much go by New York time... when it hits 9:00 here, we open gifts. But first, another tradition... new jammies! The kids take their showers and get all dressed up in brand new pajamas (made by my mom-in-law, of course)!  The presents were WAAAAY too much this year. Laura received a real working microscope and Grace got a LAPTOP computer! (Her dad was way jealous...) And they all got Disney annual passes. Tony and I struck gold, too... we received a Wii!!! Holy cow! (I am sooooo in love with this thing!) And it was even more unexpected because his parents had already given us money to renew our Disney annual passes. Wow.

It was a great night for so many wonderful reasons.

(gingerbread dog house, marshmallow "Snoopy," cuteness... )

The next day, it was our turn... since we have so many family things going on during these days, my husband and I carve out a bit of time just for the two of us. For our OWN family time. That would be Christmas morning. We open stockings and exchange gifts, and just hand out with each other. This morning we celebrated with pumpkin pancakes and new toys.

Then it was time to head to my dad's house for our afternoon and evening celebration. My dad's birthday is on Christmas day, so we do double duty. Stockings first, then some presents. A fave toy this year was a little disk gun my dad SANTA put in each of our stockings. Then we did some Wii bowling. My dad (who used to bowl in a league) fell in LOVE with that game, and almost wanted to keep it hostage for a while. Nope! Finally, it was off to the movie theater. Trying to see Avatar in IMAX, but it was sold out. So we saw had to wait an hour till the next showing in 3-D. It was a long wait, and people made a mad dash for seats (thank goodness my brother was one of the first ones in and saved some awesome ones. The staff hadn't even been in to clean the theater yet and wanted to kick us all out, but no one would move. Everyone was ready to throw down to keep their seats. (Welcome to the 9-0-9.) But for the movie itself, it was my dad and brother's first time seeing it, and they both LOVED it. Hooray!

The next celebration was the very next night. The get-together with my girls... my best buds Jen and Michelle (and her boyfriend, Sean). The girls and I have been friends since elementary school, and we've been doing this Christmas dinner since junior high. So it's a long-standing tradition. Good food (that didn't almost happen because Honeybaked was sold out and I had to make a mad dash to grab the grub from Coco's), gifts, and laughter. Oh, and maple syrup alcoholic drinks.  : )  And have wii, will travel. I had to bring it along and share the fun. It was a good night.

There were a few days of rest, and then back to work. And then more celebrations.

Tony and I spent our New Year's Eve with his sister and brother-in-law... we headed to their house after the kiddos were asleep. Hung out, played wii, and drank a bit. (Not too much, though... Maria is pregnant, so she can't drink...Tony was driving, so he couldn't drink too much... and I had a stomachache from drinking the night before. Boooooo!!!)

It was a fun, relaxing time.

I have a long-standing New Year's Day tradition to get up (somewhat) early and hang out in the living room watching the Rose Parade. I snooze off and on, but since they repeat the parade all day, I eventually get to see the complete thing. This year I stayed awake enough to see it quickly enough. And I wasn't impressed at all.

A newer tradition has been to spend the afternoon at Disneyland. That didn't happen this year. We were both too tired to spend the afternoon walking around. So we went the following day instead. And MAN, we were sooooo glad we had waited. Both parks were practically empty. (Or as empty as they can get...)  Tony and I had a blast, and since the crowds were thin, we got to see and do a lot. Tony sent a message to his sis to let her know about how good Disney was for the day, so she and her husband packed up the kiddos and joined us! (YAY!) Disneyland is always better through the eyes of a child.

So, that was my 2009-2010 holiday season. It was full of many moments that became wonderful memories. I can't wait to see what the rest of this year holds for me...