Did you have a good holiday season? (no advertising thread)

Dear users, dear authors,
was it nice? Did you have fun? Did the food taste good? Are you still in the holiday spirit, or are you getting back to your everyday routine?

Our Christmas was very quiet, since we hadn’t wanted to celebrate in the first place.
On Christmas Eve, I took my dog out for one last walk and thought a lot about my father.
  Yesterday we visited our friend, who has the “pleasure” of spending the holidays in a rehab clinic.


Today was a couch day, and I started a new crochet shawl. It’s stormy outside, and I like it when the wind howls around the house.
(As long as I don’t have to go out ;-) ).

Christmas Eve was super relaxed and fun at our place.
Our little one absolutely, urgently wanted a trampoline for his room! Unfortunately, the Christ Child didn’t wrap this trampoline, but simply put the presents on it... well, what can I say: he didn’t find it :-) 
Luckily we pointed it out to him.

Since, as every year, we grown-ups had our more or less “funny” gift-giving, there was plenty of laughter and smiles as always. The looks on the teens’ faces when they got cookbooks from Grandpa and the 21-year-old got a DIY book... I had tears in my eyes from laughing.

As always, there was far too much good food; the little one upset his stomach, and to relax I snuck away today to crochet.
 
For us, the stress always comes only after the holidays, when the relatives have time to descend on us. 

Christmas was pretty laid-back, but I’m glad I can get back to work as usual tomorrow and that the Christmas hustle and bustle is over. :)

I’ve never really been much of a Christmas person, but I’m happy when other people get to enjoy the holiday season.

With that in mind, back to everyday life :-)

Dear all,

Christmas Eve was very relaxed for us, too. The tiniest one is such a sweetheart and very laid-back!
Unfortunately, the little one has had a fever for a few days, which led us to the emergency room yesterday (since it was already her fourth day with a fever) with the nasty diagnosis of “oral herpes” (it’s a herpes virus and very dangerous for newborns—plus, it’s apparently very painful too...) and with the explicit instruction to keep the two little ones strictly separated… not so easy, because the older one is completely smitten with the baby and is also a total mommy’s girl.
That was yesterday, and today has been pretty exhausting, even though my dear husband was there to take care of the older one. Tomorrow and the day after (at least...) we’ll have to keep up this strict separation, but my husband will be at work...so the eldest will have to help out too...we’ll see how it goes...but it’s important, after all...

Oh, I’m getting sidetracked ;)

On the bright side, even with the baby lying on me, I have plenty of time to crochet and am currently working on 3 or 4 patterns… one is already finished except for the photos, and the others are coming along…

Love, Nina

@Nina: I admire how calmly you manage to do it all!

Hi Ruth,

oh, thank you so much *I’m flattered*—but it’s pretty easy for me here, too.
My husband takes the “postpartum period” very seriously, our eldest is 15 and can already handle a lot…and the baby has been very easy to care for so far…

Best regards

I had a wonderful time over the holidays.
The food was absolutely fantastic (three days of nothing but the very best of the best), and the Christ Child was very hard-working and thoughtful this year ;)

Nina: I also wish you all the best for the coming weeks—hopefully everyone in your family will be healthy again soon.

Best regards,
Tina 

We had a nasty stomach virus going around starting on Christmas Eve (my husband, and our son two days before that), and to top it all off, the washing machine broke down. But everything’s fine again now—my husband fixed the washing machine yesterday, and everyone’s feeling better. We froze the leftover food for another day... 

@Nadeleule: well, that’s some great timing: Christmas, a broken washing machine, and a stomach bug.
Our Christmas was also very relaxed. I had the 23rd off and cleaned the apartment. On Christmas Eve I picked up the meat I’d ordered. By 11, I was basically done with everything. Then I got bored and we drove to a big shopping center in Hamburg to “watch stressed-out people” — we had a lot of fun. My husband likes shopping too, though. And then we relaxed some more, and from 5 p.m. on our parents were there.
That was great!  

Hi everyone,

Christmas was cancelled for us this year. My father-in-law passed away on Christmas Day, and my grandfather-in-law on Boxing Day.

So we were busy organizing all sorts of things and, of course, trying to reassure and comfort the grieving widows...

@Patricia
My condolences!

It’s always hard when someone close to you passes away, but somehow it feels even harder around Christmas (for us, it was 6 and 5 years ago that a good friend and my husband’s grandmother passed away on Christmas)...

Best wishes, Nina

Thank you very much! Yes, it was hard that it was at Christmas of all times, but both had suffered greatly because of illness, and so both were finally at peace.