This winter break was a relaxed, lengthy break full of family time and good food at home. As much as we enjoy being with family over the holidays, this year, coming off of our trip to Japan, it was much needed for us to spend the holidays at home. The break felt like a long one but this means that we all did get to catch up on our sleep and enjoy friends and activities locally.
Bryan was off of work beginning on the 24th through the 1st so that helped with care of the girls while they were off of school. Right before the break we enjoyed a great cookie exchange at Brooke’s school. The weekend before Christmas we had a nice and quiet day on Saturday thanks to Georgie’s family taking Reese with them to a holiday concert downtown and to lunch and then on Sunday I took Reese to a holiday ladies tea party at our friend Clara and her mom Becca’s mom’s house. It was nice being able to catch up with a few of the ladies from Reese’s friend group.
Brooke went over to Madison’s house for a little play date while we were at the party. When we got back from the tea party, Georgie was planning to spend the night and Madison and Brooke walked over with Bryan to spend some time at our house, have dinner with us and watch a movie with the big girls. Everything was going well and they were far into the movie and nearing ready to go to bed when Reese developed what we are now guessing are pediatric migraines. She complained of a headache, wanted to lay down in the quiet and dark room, and then threw up one time. While we then felt fine after that, the vomit aborted the sleepover and we had to sadly drop Georgie back home. Both girls were disappointed for sure.
For the two days that Bryan was in the office, we made due at home while I worked. Reese went out with Georgie and her sitter for some fun most of the day on Monday. Brooke had her buddy Halle over for several hours to keep her entertained. On Tuesday after a quieter day at home and Brooke’s 4-year checkup at the doctor’s office, we drove to the east side for our annual visit of Snowflake Lane in downtown Bellevue. We made a reservation for 12 people at STK to enjoy some happy hour snacks and drinks with Halle and Madison’s families and then all enjoyed the parade together. We had a great time and Brooke was in hog heaven with her buddies.
Christmas Eve was fairly quiet. I still had to work but also had to make a grasshopper pie and coffee cake for Christmas morning and then as a family we made Chinese pork dumplings and Brooke snapped us a bunch of green beans. We magically got that all done before the Christmas Eve service at 5 pm at church. We even got there fairly early and were able to snag a Lowrider cookie they had out, hot chocolate, and got a rare family photo taken in their picture taken setup. The service was great and Reese was patient sitting through it (she was also given a goodie bag with some snacks and activities at the church entrance that helped) and Brooke fell asleep on Bryan for the duration of it. We couldn’t even wake her up enough to hold and light her candle for silent night. After service we headed back home to fry and steam our dumplings, which we had with some of Brooke’s green beans and a spicy smashed cucumber salad. It was a great meal!
Once we got the girls in bed there was a fair bit more of work to do. I had a bunch of little presents to wrap, Bryan assembled Reese’s new bike, and then we put together the girl’s new vanity. We finally wrapped up our work sometime around 12:30. Fortunately, the girls slept in until about 8:30, which was their norm during the break, so we were able to get some adequate sleep before heading down and starting to unwrap presents. Everyone made out really well with gifts and were all happy. There were certainly a few hit gifts that the girls really enjoyed. We spent our day playing with our new things and setting up the new Tin Can phone. Bryan then went to work searing and sous viding his roast. We sat down to dinner around 5 pm and had the delicious beef, more green beans, my homemade bread and salad. It was a delicious lazy Christmas Day and I didn’t even get out of my new Christmas jammies, which I had put on Christmas Eve!
I was back to work the day after Christmas but the slow day allowed me to spend some more quality time with the family and also help find places for all of the new things. Sarah and her mom offered to take Reese and Lottie to the Burke Museum for Natural History at UW’s campus, thanks to free tickets she got from the library, so she spent most of the day with them. We got some lowkey quality time with Brooke. I showered and changed for the first time in three days and then took Brooke to a playground in the dry weather before going to get Reese.
For that weekend we did a few fun activities. We went bowling on Saturday morning with our friends Anne and Phillip and Rosalie and Reid. The bowling was a hit and the girls loved it. We then went with them to Lincoln Park to play on the playground since it was sunny out and after we had been there for some time and had worked up an appetite for lunch we went with them to a great little deli for a delicious lunch. On Sunday we got to watch the Seahawks with an easy win over the Panthers and then in the afternoon we drove down to the Rainier Beach Community Center Pool for an hours swim in their lazy river, slide and shallow area. We then showered and changed, got McD’s for the girls on the way to Harvest Vine where the girls, without coloring books or tablets, sat and enjoyed a dinner with Bryan and I for a nice night out. The solution ended up playing a whole bunch of telephone at the table.
Monday and Tuesday were work days for me so Bryan tried to keep the girls entertained. Girls, who were starting to get a little moody and testy at times. Both days were actually beautifully sunny so after some time at home each day they were able to get out and enjoy the weather. On Monday, they headed to Sam Smith Park, the I90 bike tunnel and surrounding trails for Reese to try out her new bike and then play at the playground. We then had Lisa and Georgie and Sam over for a great dinner at our house. On Tuesday, Bryan took them to the Luther Burbank Park on Mercer Island and then took Reese to gymnastics, which she very much needed to see some friends and exert some energy. I got my hair highlighted that day so was out of the house for a few hours.
Wednesday, New Years Eve, I woke up not feeling the greatest. I had set a goal to have 100 outdoor miles in the months of November and December, and all of my miles had been jogging but I had 5 miles to complete and couldn’t do a run so I took a nice solo 5-mile walk in the Arboretum before we got ready to head over to Anne and Phillips to watch the Texas vs. Michigan bowl game, me with three UT alumni. The game didn’t end up how I would have liked but the rest were happy and it was nice to socialize through the game. We then headed home for about an hour, mainly to prep my bread, to then head over to Sarah and Lottie’s house for NYE at their place. We had some great wine, my bread and some nice cheese, and soup that Sarah had made. We toasted to east coast New Years and then headed back home after that.
I had the day off on the 1st and we really didn’t do much at all that day. I honestly can’t remember much about this day other than we watched a lot of football and movies and picked up Thai food for dinner. Bryan was back at the office on Friday so I had one more day of working at home with the kids there. Lottie came over for several hours and the three actually played pretty well altogether and were not too distracting. Reese had one more gymnastics practice that she was excited for we took Brooke down to Sky Zone trampoline park for a friend in her classes birthday party and then we had one more weekend over break.
On Saturday we had the big Seahawks vs 49ers game to watch that night so we wanted to get the kids outside and expend some energy before that. We headed to Montlake playground and Madison met us there for some time as well. The Seahawks managed to defeat the 49ers in a good game and we were quite pleased. Our last day of break was a day that Brooke had another no-sibling birthday party at All That Dance so Reese went over to Lottie’s for a few hours and for dinner while I took Brooke to the birthday party which she loved the hour dance/movement class the teacher led them through, she got to see a bunch of her school friends, and then they got to have pizza and cupcakes after.
Whew! We made it through a very, very long winter break and survived.
—
Chelsea
