A Different Holiday

After I made my rapid(ish) recovery, for a little while I toyed with the idea of making the drive to Kentucky after all. Then I saw my physical therapist and she was pretty clear that sitting in a car for sixteen hours would be a colossally bad idea. But, I was just so grateful to not be in pain anymore, and to be able to participate in life, that I tried not to be too discouraged. And so we set our minds to having a different kind of holiday.

On the night of the Winter Solstice Bob and Audrey took a bike ride with Bike Winthrop. 

At the start of the kids' school holiday vacation, Bob lucked out and was given tickets to the Holiday Pops by a client. It was such a fun experience! We had Chinese food (my first time dining out in more than two months!) and then had a table at the Pops where we had wine, hot chocolate and dessert. The music sounded SO beautiful, as were the Christmas decorations.

 On Christmas Eve Eve, we drove around delivering cookies to some of our local friends.

And then on Christmas Eve, we were invited over to Andy and Michelle's for dinner and a Yankee Swap, but first we got to see the Winthrop Firetruck Santa drive by.

On Christmas morning, after much discussion about how early to get up and when to open presents, we saw what Santa brought AND opened up presents in one fell swoop. In other words, Audrey won that argument.  Then we watched multiple Christmas movies and laid about!

I made a beef tenderloin, and tried to replicate my mom's side dishes, but my Seven Layer Salad will never be as good as my mom's!

The day after Christmas, we caught up with the Cahoons and saw the lights at LaSallette. So glad to still be able to have our tradition!

(And by "tradition" I mean checking on the "ripped crotch" gingerbread people to make sure they are still in poor shape but on display.  I am happy to report that they have lived to make us snicker another day!)

And finally, we went to the "Uncanny Valley" (aka the The Enchanted Village at Jordans) to creep ourselves out in a festive way.

We also paid three bucks a pop for an eight second "tube" ride. 

I missed seeing everyone in Kentucky, but we made the best of it!