I was talking with a friend at church the other day and he likened the Christmas season to a car accident. Despite how much preparation goes into getting ready for everything, it still manages to sneak up and leave everyone wondering what it was that just hit. Given how the past month has gone, I felt that this was a very appropriate analogy. Now that things have started to settle down, I decided that I finally better sit down and try and recap our activities over the past few weeks.
Christmas sort of snuck up on me this year. Because I did so much Black Friday shopping, I figured that I was ready since there were only a few more gifts to pick up. Then Holly graduated from nursing school which seemed to be a week-long event. (After two years of hard work and lots of sacrifice, Holly is finally a registered nurse. Well, she still has to pass the licensing exam but, given how well she did in school, that shouldn’t pose a problem.) Once we finished with graduation festivities, there was the unexpected trip to Idaho. I’ve already covered this so I won’t do it again here. Needless to say though, between the graduation and the funeral, we lost nearly two weeks of December that would have been spent getting ready for Christmas.
While we were in Idaho, I checked my work email account and discovered that I would enjoy the week of Christmas off. This gave me some much needed time to finish up shopping, wrapping gifts, and buying groceries. We even managed to make it to Temple Square to check out the lights. This is usually something that I dread because I don’t like large crowds and Temple Square in December is generally unpleasant, similar to WalMart at 5:00 am on Black Friday only colder but there was a surprising lack of people there. We all had a lot of fun and it started to help us all get mentally geared up for the holiday.
On Christmas Eve, we visited with Holly’s family at her parents’ house and then prepared for our traditional Christmas Eve festivities. My mom was in town from Denver to have some oral surgery performed and she was able to come over that evening. We did our traditional reading from Luke 2 and Emma was able to show her awesome piano skills as she played Christmas carols. I am amazed at how quickly she has picked up the piano and how she has no fear of playing in front of people.
Christmas morning came and we all enjoyed exchanging gifts. Nick and Chelsea had spent the night so they were able to take part in the fun. Ryan, Terry, and my mom all came over once the initial wave of gifts had been opened which started wave two of presents. Eventually, everyone settled into the basement where we all took turns playing the new Wii. We quickly learned that Emma is a good bowler and that too much Wii leads to sore arms the next day.
The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing. We all played a lot of games and just took it easy. This is the first year that I can remember that we haven’t gone anywhere on Christmas day. In fact, I didn’t leave the house, except to shovel snow, for three days. I have to admit that I loved it. While we did have visitors throughout the weekend, not having to go anywhere was awesome. I’m hoping for a repeat of this every year but I doubt that I’m so lucky.
Well, there you have it: the last few weeks of the Zohner family in a nutshell. For those who would like a visual representation of these events, I have added pictures to the gallery for your enjoyment.
On a side note, I wanted to thank everyone that has visited our little blog over the past year. Thanks also to those who contribute through comments, both on the blog and in real life. While I maintain this for myself, it’s nice to know that a few people actually care that it’s updated regularly. May you all have a safe and prosperous new year.
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