Friends,

How was your Christmas? Was it what you hoped for, or where there a few surprises? I was dreading mine a little bit, as it was our first year celebrating Christmas without our oldest son. His aunt and uncle graciously flew him to California to spend Christmas with my husband’s family. It wasn’t easy letting him go. But I am glad he has the opportunity. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be (though I missed him), largely because I was distracted with visitors. Dear friends we know from my husband’s time in grad school spontaneously showed up on Christmas Eve with all the trimmings for an awesome late lunch and early dinner. I love when that happens! Christmas day was pretty uneventful, which in our house is a good thing. On Saturday we took the kids sledding. In my book it doesn’t get much more Christmassy than that. Never mind that one of our children fell face down in the snow on the first run. Thank God she is tough and we still had a great time. All in all I call that a good Christmas break. How about you? What traditions make it more complete for you?

Now on to the New Year. Any plans? We still are working out some of the details, but it looks like we will be having a party at our house. We haven’t had one in a few years. Growing up in Germany New Years was a BIG deal (sort of like the 4th of July here). It was hard adjusting  to the fact that in this country it might or might not be a big deal,and that many people seem content to go to bed at 10.Over the years as we have added kids to our family big parties were less and less doable for us. Needless to say I am really looking forward to having a party again. It’s my Birthday as well so it makes it extra special.

But before I have some shopping to do…

Sofija

Photo credit: Hannah Scott-Stevenson for Tutu Monde