Blessed vacation

Well hello! I am back.

I know that most of the people that read this are the ones I just visited. So thanks for indulging me as I recap some of my fun from being in Colorado and Utah with family and friends (and the mountains, which count as both). :) Feel free to skip ahead, but I want to capture some of the things I love about the holidays-- I want to remember the core ingredients that make up the good times so I can help re-concoct them again, even when the rest of the ingredients change (as they most certainly will). :)

And that's kind of what traditions are, right?

With the extended family, I love the Christmas Eve nativity puppet show and the piñata we have every year. The puppet show is staffed by the grandkids on my mom's side (the ones who can be there), and the story comes from both Matthew and Luke so we can get the wise men in there. (I plan to make my own set of puppets eventually.) Then we break open the piñata!

This particular Christmas was momentous because we decided to shake things up a little with these traditions. For example, we always let the youngest choose their puppet first, and there's always a fight for Mary. This means that I have not been Mary since I was five. Or may seven. But guess who got to be Mary this year...

(James was doing the reading, so he's not in the pic.)

Yup, exactly. I think it was because none of the "little kids" are really little enough anymore to cry if they aren't Mary. Anyway, the fact that everyone always wants to be Mary makes me smile. It also took all 9 of us to break the piñata, which is also rare since those "kids" are also much stronger and usually break it before it gets to any of my siblings. (We're the oldest.)

Other things I love: Opening stockings and reading Tú Eres Especial with my siblings (which did not happen this year since none of us actually woke up in the middle of the night), omelettes for Christmas breakfast, and everyone getting at least one book (usually from "Santa").

So basically, I love all the things we do that give us a chance to spend stress-free time together, to be festive and remember what Christmas is about, and to build memories together. And I think we do a good job of splitting extended-family time with immediate family time. We don't always succeed at the stress-free part, but overall, pretty good.

Thanks, fam.

And then I got to do round two in Utah with some friends from college. It was such a blast to actually see people again-- not that I don't appreciate the phone time, but it's different. :) Being there in person pretty much made it a slumber party every night (which meant not so much sleeping but lots of talking, especially about boys and life plans).

I really loved being in an apartment with close girlfriends and having people around so frequently! One night, Ashley and I randomly invited 15 people from her apartment complex over for dinner. I ♥ random "dinner parties." Other nights involved smaller dinner groups, game nights, and various excursions. I love everyone I have here in Rhode Island too, but there's a different vibe with large groups of people that you just can't get in groups of 2-4, which is mostly how it goes here. More energy, I guess, which is fun sometimes no matter how much you love your heart-to-hearts. And I do love my heart-to-hearts.

I'm not sure I was quite ready to come back... but it was great. And I am glad to start catching up with the friends here that I missed while I was away!