We were walking out to the car, stuffed with presents, a dog and a sleepy toddler, to head back home on Christmas night and I suddenly felt like I’d been hit by a bus! Christmas season is a marathon and after back to back to back to back nights of holiday plans and dinners and gatherings… whew, I was tired! But also feeling so happy, so loved, so well fed. This holiday season has been sooooo fun with a toddler. He is so much more aware and interactive this year. It was a true blast 😊 And he (and we!) was so spoiled with gifts and attention. Feeling very grateful for everyone in our lives who made it such a good holiday ❤

The fun all started earlier this week with dinner downtown — we ate at Jovanina’s Broken Italian and oh my god, is was SO good! — and a trip to see the Mile High Tree on the 16th Street Mall. Not sure Dempsey cared about it as much as I did, but he did enjoy those lit up snowflakes near the tree. This was Lori’s idea and I’m so glad she took us. We had a great time!

Thursday, I worked from home and by “worked,” I mean my computer was open and on but I was mostly rushing around like a mad woman getting ready for our Christmas festivities. Thank god my parents were there to take care of Dempsey so I could go to the grocery, put together a couple of casseroles, clean the bathrooms, wrap some presents and who knows what else 🤪 Got it all done and cleaned up by 5 PM, so my parents could head home and Dempsey and I could head to meet up with Joey for dinner before bowling! It was Dempsey’s first time seeing Dad bowl, can you believe it?! He mostly enjoyed rolling the extra alley bowling balls back and forth on the rack but Joey got to show him off to all his bowling buddies too 😍

Christmas Eve started brighter and earlier than we would’ve liked when Dempsey woke up at 4 AM 😱 Joey eventually got up with him and they both fell asleep on the couch. We had eight people coming over at 8:30 AM, but luckily everything was pretty ready, so the boys could sleep in for a bit. We opened presents while my egg casserole finished baking (oops!) and everyone got such good stuff. Dempsey got a play kitchen from Grandma Lori and it’s soooo nice and cute. He loves it! And breakfast turned out so good. Definitely going to keep that casserole in my back pocket. Also noticed one of my orchids had finally bloomed and gasped!

Had the whole afternoon to ourselves, which was super nice, then headed to Keith and Joanne’s for Christmas Eve dinner/gift exchange. Dempsey’s first bowl of butterball soup and he loved it! He also seemed to enjoy a white chocolate Hershey’s kiss 😂 He was such a ham that night, handing out gifts to everyone and doing laps around the kitchen. I loved it!

Christmas Day! Dempsey slept in till 8:15!!!! I am pretty sure that is the last Christmas morning sleep in we’ll get until he’s 18 😂😂😂 We’ll take it! After being out of the house early on Christmas morning for the past couple of years, being able to be home till 2 PM felt like such a luxury. We unwrapped presents as a family and Santa brought Dempsey that cute chair. He did so good ripping off wrapping paper and pulling stuff out of his stocking ❤ He roamed all over the living room afterward, playing and having fun and hey, that was fun for us too! Tried for so long to take that family photo (ugh, Dempsey’s swollen eyes from his rash…) but he did not want to sit still.

Spent the afternoon at Steve and Lorna’s and seriously took ONE photo. Fail! And except for that time Dempsey alluded all the adult supervision and was climbing the stairs by himself 😬, we had a nice relaxing time.

Headed over to my parents’ after that, praying Dempsey would make it through the evening on his one nap, and had such a nice time. My mom is the very best and spoiled us all with stocking stuffers, presents and an amazing dinner. I love her the most. She IS Christmas ❤ A certain tired boy needed to go home and go to bed so we left before dessert, but don’t worry, we brought some home.

Dempsey was up early on Sunday, so he and Joey headed downstairs and when I came down a bit later, they were in the kitchen making pancakes together. Orrrr more like Dempsey was playing with a teaspoon and a bowl of flour but same thing 😋 I took over and WOW, cooking “with” a toddler is a lot messier than I had expected. He was throwing flour, he was eating flour, he was crawling up on the counter 🤣🤣🤣 Post-pancake breakfast, we played around with Joey’s new toy, a record player! My mom knew I was getting it for him, so she gave me my very own record… Folklore! While Dempsey was down for his nap, Joey put together the easel my parents got him for Christmas and I hand-washed, dried and put away our new silverware. It’s soooooo shiny and pretty 😍 And would you look at that small artist at work?!

Ended the evening at La Loma, celebrating Wayne’s birthday! I think Dempsey ate a pepper that was in the guacamole and was none too happy about it, but he recovered quickly and seemed to really enjoy his little plate of quesadilla, beans and rice 😊 I hope your holiday weekend was a good one!