We have survived the Christmas season this year. Never an easy task and never seems to get easier. But like all Christmas’ there is a lot of beauty, fun, and company through all of the chaos. Our plans for travel this Christmas evolved from one week in Michigan, coming back Christmas day, to a full two weeks away with a second stop in Texas, coming back on NYE. Somehow I managed to reroute our flights and travel plans but logically in my brain I never pieced together that we would in fact be gone as long as we were. Knowing that we were going to be through the end of the month/year, we tried to do as many of our typical Christmas traditions at home before leaving. For instance, we:
- Made it to Bellevue for the Snowflake Lane parade. Enjoyed a carhop dinner and mystery shop at Burgermaster beforehand. Girls really enjoyed the music, waving to the participants in the parade, and being handed peppermint lollipops. Brooke still does not like any person dressed in a full bodysuit so there was that. We also did not even manage to leave the parade before our light up balloon completed disassembled.
- Ahead of the parade we had time to kill and managed to make it to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens Garden D’Lites display. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but this ended up being wonderful and really peaceful. The girls each walked themselves through the 15 minute display, enjoying and aweing at all of the lights and the weather was super mild and enjoyable.
- We picked up our Christmas tree from the Steven’s tree sale again this year. They always do such a nice job with this sale and event and makes it easy to get a tree and support a good cause. Plus our tree is beautiful this year and is still thriving and looking great!
- After we got a Din Tai Fung dumpling dinner in University Village one night we made the short drive to drive through the Candy Cane Lane neighborhood to take in their lights. This was an easy check off the list for us.
- We always have Harvest Vine coupons that we need to use at the end of the year and the day before we flew out we picked up the girls and brought them along for dinner and had a delicious meal and the girls were very well behaved.
- And Bryan and I had our last football game of the year to attend for the epic Sunday Night Football showdown against the Packers. We did not go into the game confidentally but did not expect the whooping we received or the extreme amount of Packers fans present. But the weather was again comfortable and they had a really cool light show throughout the game and drone show at halftime that was fun. The best part of the night was heading to Bait Shop Bar in Capitol Hill afterwards for some delicious food and drinks and their very unique and fun light show that they do every hour on the hour.
Not Christmas but we also had Brooke’s birthday party with her three best friends. We managed to have a very low key party with her closest buddies and it was the least stressed out I’ve been for a party ever. Maya, Madison and Halle and their families joined us for a pizza lunch first at Pagliacci’s in Columbia City where Brooke also opened a few presents, we sang happy birthday and enjoyed some cookie cake, and we coincidentally ran into our good friends Georgie, Sam and Chris who joined us for lunch. We then all walked/drove the short distance over the Seattle Gymnastics Academy preschool annex for an hour of free play in their Indoor Playground event. The girls all had matching gymnastics leotards and were so cute jumping into the foam pit, doing the obstacle courses and dancing on the mats with one another. There was one moment that Brooke got upset with a friend that she still hasn’t forgotten but otherwise it was an easy and successful birthday party.
So moving on to the trip. Wow! There was a lot to share and we were kept pretty busy from the get go. Our flight to Detroit was super smooth sailing and although we had to wake the girls early they had no issue getting up to head to Michigan. We bussed and light railed to the airport, checked our bags and felt a whole lot lighter. We landed in Detroit to be welcomed by Grandad who drove us back to East Lansing before we got to see Grammy and Sophie and had middleeastern food in each other’s company.
We were up early the next day for Grammy’s retirement party. None of knew what to expect and Chad met us there. For both Chad and I we had only ever been at her office on one occasion. To our surprise the entire family were seated facing the crowd in a room of about 60 people while they semi-roasted my mom and our entire family. It was so nice to be apart of this big event and the girls did exceptionally while sitting through it. They had a large assortment of delicious cookies to enjoy afterwards and after my mom said all of her goodbyes our family headed over to One North for a great lunch, the girls even got to pick a present out from the restaurant’s Christmas tree. From there the girls headed over to More Grammy’s house to cut, bake and ice her legendary sugar cookies with her. This was something I did yearly with Grandma so it was so special to see my girls get to do it with her. By the time we left we all needed a little rest before we embarked on the next phase of the day…a congratulations cocktail party with our favorite family friends Tom, Pam and Madison, Cindy and Durv, and Jennette and Terry. It was so nice to be able to see all of these people and happy to have them over to celebrate Mom’s retirement.
The very next day we all packed our bags to set north to Frankenmuth and the Zehnder’s Waterpark and Hotel which was Grammy and Grandad’s Christmas gift to all of us. I had never been to Zehnder’s or Frankenmuth before so I was excited as well. We had two nights in a very spacious room with a loft and plenty of beds for all of us. We checked in at 4 pm and immediately set out to the water park for the next few hours. This was great, with a variety of slides, pools, hot tubs and lazy rivers for everyone in the family. We had to convince the girls to pull away from the waterpark around 7 pm so we could all shower and have time to get dinner before bed. We set out for Zehnder’s Restaurant in town for their legendary chicken dinner and this was such a fun experience and literally stuffed us all to the point of busting.
Saturday and Sunday each were room service breakfast ordered in from the hotel’s restaurant which was surprisingly cheap and delicious and then the water park from 10:30 am until 4 pm. On Saturday Texas had a big game against Clemson so we had some snacks and ordered in a delicious pizza to enjoy in the room during the first half. The girls took the hotel’s shuttle to downtown to do some shopping and walk around while the boys finished what ended up being a close game. We had all planned to go to a charcuterie and wine bar called Prost. Unfortunately we didn’t think to make a reservation and were quoted quite the wait for six people so Mom offered to take the girls back to the hotel (who were wanting to anyways) and Bryan and I got to enjoy a great few hours of peace and each other’s company before walking back in zero degree weather taking in the beauty of the snow and lights. The girls were still up of course but we were fine with the night out. And after another six hours of swimming and slides, a pina colada, and enough chlorine to last us all of 2025, we headed back to EL Sunday, getting Lou and Harry’s for dinner and all passing out to a movie.
Monday was a fairly relaxing day for most. We got in a workout, we enjoyed a quiet morning, and I took the girls with me to reunite with five of my girlfriends from ELHS and two of their kids. It was super fun to see them all, and especially so as a group. We went bowling and the kids all had a great time doing it together. We spent about four hours there, bowling, talking and playing at the arcade before coming home for a relaxing night before the holiday festivities.
Bryan took Reese and Brooke to a new jumping place in Lansing on Christmas Eve that allowed them to burn so much energy. They came back home to get ready for family coming over for Christmas Eve dinner. Most of our family joined us this year for Mom’s clam chowder and crab cakes which were delicious and followed by Grandma’s cookie platter and a grasshopper pie, plus a lot of cream bourbon. We opened our Christmas pjs from Grandma and Papa and all loved them, read some Christmas books and went to sleep.
On Christmas morning we kept it pretty relaxed. We had opened all of our presents back home so had some stocking gifts and a few gifts for each other to open. We readied ourselves and then headed over to my Grandma’s house for the day. This was the second year that they did a gift exchange that was actually a lot of fun and Bryan collected his own gift of beer and a Yeti tumbler and I am the new gin and tonic maker of the cottage (not sure about that Grandma!). The girls got a few gifts, including a kids sewing kit that Reese promptly did it all over the next 48 hours. A big group of us went for a nice walk through Grand Ledge and along the river trail and we finally headed back home around 7 pm where we shared some snacks and Facetimed with Bryan’s family before bed.
The next two days had no plans other than to relax and enjoy our new presents. Sarah and Chad were coming over on the 26th and the girls were both so excited for their visit. They played a bunch of games with them while Bryan and I snuck out for a nice long walk around campus. That night we all went to El Azteco for some delicious Topopo Salad, margaritas and more card games before we had to say goodbye to Chad and Sarah. And on our last full day in Michigan, Bryan and I took turns going for runs, we took the girls to Patriarch Park, I brought Brooke with me to Grandma’s again to pick up a few things from her and have one last chat, and we finished off our money at the arcade. Bryan and I made dinner of filets with leftover king crab cakes that came out really well and then we all packed and readied ourselves to fly to Texas the next day.
I’ll save the rest of the trip and break for another post…now that Christmas is complete.
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Chelsea
