Holidays 2023

 Thanksgiving and Christmas Time 2023

What a fun Thanksgiving!! Grandma and Grandpa flew in on Monday to spend the holiday with us. What a blessing!  We (literally) never thought that they would make the trip to see us again.  Grandma's health has been "stable" for a few months now so we jumped on the idea of a visit. The boys had off of school the entire tie they were here so we got to make many memories together.  We al picked them up at the Philly airport and stopped at Cheesecake Factory on the way home. The boys taught them their new favorite video game the next day - Fortnite. We gave them a fancy chess board for Christmas, so there was lots of chessing going on. We made our traditional visit to Shady maple Smorgasbord. There was lots of traditional and gluten-free Thanksgiving meal prep. And on Thanksgiving, we spent the day with my parents and Mandy. We even got to watch the Seahawks play on Thanksgiving evening! Jason and I snuck out to do some Black Friday shopping and then he took his parents for a spin in the Camaro... so awesome.  It was then, on late Friday afternoon, while we were all decorating for Christmas, that Grandma casually mentioned that it has been her life dream to go to NYC for Christmas. So... I got to planning.  And on Sat AM... away we went! Our hotel parking garage was 0.75 miles from the hotel. Luckily, all things Christmassy were between the garage and the hotel, so we strolled to our hotel, taking in all of the famous sites. Once we arrive (hours later) Jason and I hustled back to the car to grab the luggage.  Then we all dined at Olive Garden at Times Square and took in Times Square at Night.  Once everyone was back in the hotel rooms for the night, Jason and I snuck out to dance. Jason got Grandma to make hm his favorite pork chop meal right before we drove them back to the airport- yummy!

I, personally, was not really into the Christmas Spirit the year. Not a grinch, but certainly not my normal Santa self.  Im not sure why either.  Maybe because 1/2 of our family was abroad? I'm not sure. Only Jimmy is wrestling this year, and he's not competing so the whole season was off to a weird start. The season also started with Jason getting rear-ended, again in Delaware County. Luckily, he was only are for three days. Jimmy, Jason and I attended Have Yourself a Merry Lititz Christmas since Jack was sick with ANOTHER UTI.  Jimmy was cute, though he showed no interest in Santa. Our Fireplace then decided to nit turn on, once again. My Dad came to try to fix the problem, though we never really figured it out- it jut randomly started working. Selina and Dennis' annual Christmas party was fun.  Jason came home with the coveted shark wine bottle holder.  Our white elephant gifts that we gave were a boob mug and nipple clamps- you should have seen Karen's face when she opened the nipple clamps, HAHA. After teaching Jackson how to shave, we danced the night away at the VFW's Ugly Sweater Dance Party. Jason was, literally, the only guy dancing. Then the Liounis clan got together to bake and decorate cookie, like we used to. I actually baked sugar cookies this year - they were not easy to do, but they tasted good. 

And then...

On December 20th...

THE SURPRISE...

Jaylee came home for a month over the holidays and the bus had no idea. I picked her up at 5 at BWI. Jackson was home alone when we got home and he was so confused when she opened the door and asked him to help with her luggage... "What? What ?!? WHAT?  WHAT?!?"  Then he jumped into her arms.

When Jimmy came home, she snuck home from behind him and went to hug him. When he saw it was her, he just burst into tears. Sobbing. It was priceless.

(I don't know why my photos aren't uploading in the correct order, it's frustrating.) 

I got to spend an afternoon with Darlene and Jason and I got to spend an evening at his boss' Christmas party.

Christmas Eve was on a Sunday this year. Poppop was singing in his church choir, so we all headed over there for church service.  Only Mandy knew that Jaylee was coming home. Nan and Poppop were floored!!  The cousins were happily surprised.  Then we headed to their house for lunch and gifts, with Mommom Matheson. This was the last year of our family believing in Santa, so it was weird that we left before it got dark out, and didn't race Santa home. It was much more relaxed though. Then the 3 kids climbed into bed together... but only until 4am Christmas morning...

We had them open our envelope gifts first. I made pamphlets explaining our family reunion in the D.R. 

BOY OH BOY were they excited!!!

Jaylee turned 21, but I'll ma separate blog on that one!!

Jason and I attended a 80s Rock Concert on New Year's Eve's Eve.  We met up with Debbie and her sister. It was a great time. Jason looked HOT in his 80s rockstar outfit.  Afterwards awe went out to a bar and kept dancing... where no one else was in 80s outfits- everyone was staring a Jason, LOL. 

So, NYE was very quiet at home with the boys.

Happy 2024!