Ringing in a new decade

We decided to try something new this year. We ventured to a winter wonderland at Merriweather for a walk through Christmas lights and fireworks to celebrate the Scottish new year ( 7 pm EST). We had dinner in Ellicott City before the event and ended the evening at home with a few games, treats and watching the end of year entertainment countdown. 

The event at Merriweather was really nice. We all enjoyed the fresh air and some of us enjoyed the walking. Most of us enjoyed the fireworks, except when we realized how close they were. That scared Clair a bit and made me watch closely for sideways fire. We were probably 50 yards from their launching site. 

At home we had Christmas cookies, fudge and several games of SkyJo. We watching pop bands from across many decades. The kids got tires, but everyone made it u til midnight. Then Hazel and David stayed up talking for hours whilst the rest of us were in bed before 1 am. 

I asked each of the kids what they were most proud of in 2019. Max said he was proud of getting much better and soccer.  Ellie said she was proud of becoming a good goalie for soccer when she played in fifth grade and she was proud of making the travel softball team. Clair said she was proud of being a good helper and kind to people. 

 Trying to reflect on what I’m most proud of is hard. I’m proud of balancing being a working mom and accomplishing things with my career. But I can’t point to a specific event. But I think it sounds I think they’ve each made great leaps and music this year. I’m proud of them for that. 

Reenacting the Christmas lights behind us but didn’t really get a good picture. 

Fireworks 

My cute almost teenager on her phone and watching Post Malone. 

Counting down to midnight! 

Espresso martinis 

A few final photo memories

Claire is really into scrabble. I love that she will sit and play a full game and really tries to come up with the right words. In this game she was determined to beat me.



These photos are from Claire’s Christmas scavenger hunt. Here she’s explaining the balls to all of us the following pictures are us hunting. In the final picture is the treasurer and we all put together the prize this weekend. She’s so sweet and I’m going to have. And she was patient enough to wait until the fifth day of Christmas to do the scavenger hunt what she had planned for us to do on Christmas morning. Clearly there was too much excitement and energy from all the presents. But we did all participate and I think she was happy.

On a final note, Lady Grey has been dealing with nosebleeds this Christmas.  Our holiday break also included a trip to the vet. We’re not sure what’s causing them and hoping that it’s just a little cut on her nose. Ellie is having a really hard time with her aging. 

Christmas morning at Gramma

 This one turned out to be quite a relaxing morning. We didn’t leave moms until about 3 PM after having arrived at 9 AM. All the kids played really nicely together. We all took turns watching each other open presents and even the little ones were patient enough for that approach to be enjoyable. This was a great final Christmas celebration. 

Cousin Christmas

Cousin Christmas was a bit of a whirlwind. The latimer’s were in town for maybe 30 hours max. They rolled out around 10 PM on Friday night after the new puppy got hurt and danny’s family all came down with the stomach bug. Katie had also been dealing with a version of the flu making her feel rotten. Amy really hated leaving and begged to stay. It was a tough ending to what everyone had anticipated to be a nice long visit. 

 Nonetheless we all managed to spend a few hours together here and exchange gifts. 

Stockings

After the numerous presence of Christmas morning, we wait until the next day to open the stockings that seem to feels for us. This is a nice way to draw that Christmas is a carryover from my childhood experience where we open stockings either Christmas night after we got back from wherever we had gone that evening or sometimes the next day.

 The kids were nearly as excited to get up on the day after Christmas as they were on Christmas day. 

Christmas night in pictures

 Hazel made steak pie. Mom, George, and dad all joined us. We ended the evening with a game of charades. Mom has been sick in their two week run up to Christmas so it was great to see her out and about and able to join us. 

Christmas morning in photos