I am back from the holidays! The holiday break was utterly fantastic–again and always, just the perfect break. It was full of family time, seeing friends, and wedding planning (I ate a LOT of cake over the course of two days!). Nik and I are starting to get into the groove of holiday plans–who goes where, and when–a challenging thing to do with so many families to spend time with! Over the past several years, we have begun the following holiday routines: Christmas Eve with his very dear family friends, the Berkes family. Christmas morning at my dad’s, and then Christmas dinner and evening at his family’s house. Christmas is celebrated on another day altogether with my mom. I am excited to maintain our holiday routines and excited to see what else comes as we get married (THIS YEAR) and have kids.
Here are some highlights from the fabulous near-two-week bliss of a holiday break:
Christmas with my mom. We ate dinner at the Chart House, and then dove into a neverending pile of gifts while drinking plenty of champagne with dancing craisins. I swear that this year Logan demonstrated his ability to either count or sequence, as he KNEW when it was his turn to open a gift and was really bummed when Mandi skipped over him–
Christmas at my dad’s. Nana and Nonno drove in from Arizona to join us. We snacked on cookies and breads, opened gifts, ate a delicious lunch, chatted outside, and then put the Lakers game on and chatted some more–
Breakfast with Mark and Lydia. It’s always nice to see them and catch up. I can’t wait to spend some more time with them in 2012 and for Mark to officiate the wedding!–
Dinner with Kimberly, Grady, Zena, and Siena. Siena is just the most precious baby. She tolerated her mommy and daddy having a long, long dinner with their friends. She was such a good girl and she just played and played and grabbed our hair, wooing us with her smile.–
Lakers game with Mandi! We started out the evening at a happy hour, and talked and laughed over mojitos, jicama, and leprechauns. I love when Mandi takes me to her games. We had a ton of fun.–
Unphotographed highlights include a late night post-Thanksgiving (in December) dinner run on the dark track with Mandi, delicious homecooked meals with my mom, meeting up with Nik’s friends at a bar in Manhattan Beach (I missed you guys), some very special shopping with Kimberly and Zena, breakfast with Melissa and Jason and finally getting to see their gorgeous home, and cake tasting with my sisters/maids of honor! (“From the back side!”)
Nik has started his new job up here, and it’s pretty far from home (an hour to an hour and a half drive each way…which isn’t horrible for LA and traffic, but there’s little traffic here and he drives about 160 miles a day). We’re settling into a new routine. With him having been off of work for several months, I had gotten used to him running the errands, taking care of the house, and making me dinner almost every night. He is now just trying to stay awake after coming home in the evenings. He’s really exhausted, and I’m hoping that he gets used to it soon. I have been either making or starting dinner, and he’s a trooper in helping me finish it up as soon as he gets home. We had also been used to having the evenings together, and now there’s little time. We have started to call each other on his drive home, which is nice, and catch up on the day. It’s the second week and it’s already getting easier, so I think we’ll fall into a routine soon. I’m so happy for him in his new job!
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