Many talked about how different their Christmas was this year given the pandemic, and their need to be isolated at home with no family. Fortunately or unfortunately, this Christmas was no different for me. As a nurse, I've spent most Christmases working in the hospital. As a military spouse, the last 2 years I didn't even spend Christmas with Ryan. 2018 he was deployed and 2019 he was on mandatory orders and worked the night shift through the holiday.
We live 1700 miles away from any family. So have always had to figure out a creative way to spend the holiday. As much as I love the Christmas season, the baking, the decorations, and the fun - the actual holiday is one that I have sort of come to not enjoy. I find myself in tears at some point either on Christmas Eve or Day in envy of people who get to spend holidays with their families.
While we try to travel home for holidays, it has been a challenge - since we both have jobs that continue to work on holidays. So we always would have to coordinate and bid our schedule. (Well, I have finally landed a position that doesn't require me to work holidays...)
This is not meant to be a "woe is me" post. :D It is just an honest reflection. With all that being said, I've learned to put a lot of energy into making the day special. And thankfully, we have friends who also do not have family in town that we have started to spend Christmas with - and that has filled the emptiness!
But next year that changes - because we will have a little girl to enjoy the magic of Christmas with. We so look forward to that.
Here is how we filled our Christmas to make it a really truly special holiday. I was so grateful to actually get to spend Christmas with Ryan this year - and we savored every minute of the holiday.
Christmas Eve was a busy day! We both worked out in the morning, I did some last-minute Christmas shopping, cleaned the house, and we hit the 4pm Christmas Eve Mass.
Ryan prepared/grilled steaks & I made butternut squash risotto and a salad from our garden!
After dinner, I made a mug of tea and Ryan made himself whisky after-dinner drink - and we headed to a neighborhood in Tucson called "Winterhaven". Every year since the '80's - this neighborhood gets completely decked out in Christmas lights, and the streets are closed for people to walk (and they have horse carriages, too!). This Year COVID canceled the event - but many of the homes still decorated in beautiful lights.
We took Miles and had a great evening walk. We decided this will be a new tradition we do every year with Baby Namaste!
After our walk - Ryan fired up the creme brulee torch to finish off the creme brulee I made earlier in the day. We had an espresso to accompany dessert, and we opened our gifts!
Ryan and I did not do big gifts for each other this year - since our "gift" was some updates to our backyard. But he got me a ton of cute pregnancy gifts: different skin products, a cookbook, and this shirt.
I haven't been super keen on the idea of taking pictures of my belly. But I let him snap one, as I know someday it will be fun to look back on!
Christmas morning we woke up to the best gift an Arizonan can receive: Rain!!!
I immediately canceled my 5:30 am running plans, and got up and made coffee and blueberry waffles with a blueberry compote (not pictured).
We face-timed my parents and then had probably a 2-hour zoom call with Ryan's Mom and step-dad in Germany and his sister's family. It was kind of fun to just casually spend a few hours catching up. It almost felt like in person! I was able to make my chocolate pie for Christmas dinner while we were catching up with his family :)
We then headed to my friend Sharon's home for our annual tradition of Ciopinno Christmas dinner!
It was a really fun evening, as it always is! We are so grateful for our friends who are like family.
Ryan and I decided 5 minutes before heading to dinner, we would wear ugly sweaters.
Ryan had no idea that I had this sweater in my closet - and we laughed so hard about how I "out-uglied" him!
It says "Baaaaa hum-bug" - and there is literally a stuffed lamb coming out of the sweater!
It was a special 2 days - and I hope that anyone who had to experience Christmas in a different light this year for the 1st time was able to appreciate the importance and gift of good company.
I also hope that by next year we have the luxury back of being able to travel and gather freely again!
Comments
This was our 2nd Christmas alone as I got the stomach flu on Paul’s first Christmas so we had to cancel our plans to go to the lake. It was actually ok to be home this Christmas as I am not getting much sleep and it’s tough to be at someone else’s house when you have a fussy/screaming baby... plus even without Covid I would be nervous to be around a large group during cold and flu season. With newborns, a fever is such a bad thing as it requires hospitalization and could require a spinal tap. But I do feel bad that Joan was alone. A friend brought her dinner on Christmas Eve but it’s still hard knowing she was alone. I am glad she has Oscar to keep her company!
It is wonderful that you have such great friends that take you in and include you on holidays, as I know you include them in your gatherings, also. They are your AZ family. Your Christmas sounded beautiful, and your sweaters were such a delight!