runlindsayrun

Holiday Round-Up

Let's see if I can summarize...

I suppose that Saturday marked the true beginning to this year's Christmas season. Geoff and I went shopping for a bit in the afternoon to take care of a few final details, and then Emily joined us for the evening to watch Elf - can you believe that neither Emily nor I had seen it before? Anyway. What's not to love about a movie in which Christmas is saved by singing. I thought it was absolutely delightful.

Sunday had an EARLY start. Because of the snow, Geoff and I had to leave our house at 7 am to get to Niverville in time for my 8 am soundcheck. After some quick practice, we left church to meet Rocky for breakfast - then it was back to church for the Sunday morning service. I had WAY too much fun singing the old-school Amy Grant version of 'O Little Town of Bethlehem' with my peeps (complete with a rockin' synthesizer solo and THREE key changes). After that, it was off to my parents' place to help them get ready for the Hildebrandt family gathering there later in the afternoon. By 3 pm, our house was full of people and we dug into presents and way too much food. Geoff and I stayed late to help clean up, then it was back to the big city.

I worked on Monday, then Geoff picked me up and we headed straight back to my parents' place to help get ready for my own family's get-together in the evening. We shared dinner, gifts, and so much laughter that my stomach hurt. It was so much fun to share our family Christmas traditions with Kevin and Geoff for the first time, and we had Cait there as well to share in the festivities. I love my family. We had such a great time. Geoff, Aaron, and I slept over - and my dad and I were predictably the first people awake. I shared an hour with him over a cup of coffee (or two...) and that was really special time for me. By 11ish, everyone else was up and we all pitched in to make brunch together. By 2 pm, Geoff and I were on the road again. We spent the afternoon preparing dinner and dessert to bring along to his brother Kevin's place, and we shared Christmas dinner with him and a Christmas phone call with Marilyn while we were there.

Boxing Day started off pretty slow for us... We slept in, then went to a couple of stores around 12.30 - bought a new stereo for my car (an extremely necessary purchase), a few books I'd been eyeing from Chapters, and two pairs of shoes for Lindsay. Nothing really extravagant, and nothing that was one of those 'oh my god, you'd never believe it' sales. I really didn't want to get up early or go to any of Those Stores. Then we were off to Morris to spend some time with my mom's family. More great food, and lots and lots of Blokus. By 11.30, we were home again. And back to work this morning. Whew.

My challenges for right now are trying to get through the ridiculous list of things I've planned to accomplish at work this week, making time to get my house back in order, and not being disappointed with Geoff's and my conflicting work schedules... He's off while I'm working today and tomorrow, then I'm off for the weekend while he works, and then he's working Monday night (New Years Eve) and Tuesday (my brother's birthday). And then he's off for the rest of that week while I'm working, and then working on the weekend again. Sigh. I suppose it's good for us to miss each other.

Oh, and trying not to be disappointed that Christmas is over. I love Christmas. I especially love spending time with family and friends, and giving gifts to people. It's such a long wait til next year...

So, all in all, my first married Christmas was busy - but kind of perfect. And Geoff contributed to the perfection by surprising me with probably the most perfect gift anyone has ever picked for me: a black pearl necklace that is absolutely stunning and simply looks like it was created for Lindsay to wear it.

He succeeded in making me speechless, which probably says it all :)


Geoff & Lindsay


Cait and Aaron


Jessie and Kevin

Labels: Christmas, Family, My Life, The Boy

posted by Lindsay @ 9:47 AM