Christmas staycation 2014

Christmas is my favorite time of year.  I live for the sneakiness, the trickery, the lights, the good food, the family, cheer: It's the total package.

If you've read my blogs lately, you know that this has been a busy December for me. In addition to working from home, and doing a few shifts at the interpreting agency, I got married and went to Disney. The night before the wedding we rushed the boys through a 10 min motion of hanging their ornaments on the tree, that should have been my clue that Christmas was going to be crazy this year. Well, it was.  And I had a wonderful time with both of my families on the 24th and 25th.  But I want to write this blog about the week I had with my boys for Christmas.  It's something I look forward to each year, and for me it's worth writing about.


Friday Dec 27 24th, 2013
I woke up and hit the road by 6:30a. I couldn't wait to have the boys with us for Christmas.  I went through my seasonal playlists of Sufjan's second Christmas release on the way up, saving Vince Guaraldi and The Chipmunks for the ride back.  Upon arrival at their mom's, Ray came bounding to the car adorned in a raccoon hat.  Perfect. The boys climbed in, got big hugs, and we sped off towards Westerville.  We all got pumped up talking about all the Christmas plans.  The moment we got home, unprompted, Ray found Elizabeth and declared "Happy Holidays Step-Mom!"  Melt. Then we made a quick visit to see my Grandma Morrisey at the home.  Nobody loves christmas as much as her.  Nobody.  She was delighted to see the boys. We dropped my car off for an oil change at Roush, and walked across the street to Kroger for cookie supplies for Santa.  We ended up doing a little last minute shopping for Elizabeth: cake batter and iTunes card. Our fake Christmas Eve was the best part of the whole week for me.  Christmas light lit room, cookies, writing a letter to Santa, opening Hulk and Iron Man pajamas, giving Remy his Thor costume, watching Kung Fu Panda Christmas, putting tape across the front door to see if Santa broke it when he came in, eliz read the boys a Santa Comes to Ohio book, and finally we tucked them in and I read The Night Before Christmas.  That magic was enough, but then Eliz and I put our elf hats on and kicked some ass.  We ate Santa's cookies, but left some crumbs.  Set out the gifts, filled the stockings.  Then Eliz used her fancy writing to answer the boys' note as Santa Claus, and I put flour on my boots and walked across the floor to the tree to leave footprints. The good stuff.

Saturday Dec 28 25th, 2013
We woke up at a reasonable hour (7ish) and heard the boys whispering downstairs about the presents and their stockings. One of the better noises to wake up to. We did stockings first.  Quite possibly the most fun of all presents are the dollar bin items that they go nuts over.  Sam got a set of "sticky hands" that he played with more than any other toy the whole vacation. Ray of course did his "animal pills" that grow in water while Elizabeth made us French Toast and Sausage (Vince Guaraldi in the background of course).  We opened our gifts with the boys and it was great.  But I'm starting to think more in line with my dad, Christmas Eve, and the anticipation of, is better than the actual Christmas morning itself.  By Midday, we arrived to my parents' where we did Christmas all over again with the boys.  They tore through gifts in record time and fervor, the way it should be haha.  Afterwards we enjoyed a homemade Mara spaghetti sauce and all stuffed ourselves to the point of explosion.  The afternoon was relaxing.  Ray played Magic Jinn ad-nauseum.  Sam played with his new chess set, and they both eventually finished out the night Legoing. All was calm.

Sunday Dec 29th, 2013
We went through a time warp and arrived at the 29th.  We let the boys play with their new stuff in the morning until it was time to meet Miss Sherry for Christmas lunch at Red Robin.  We had a great time, and a great lunch.  The boys were super excited to get more gifts haha, and they gave Miss Sherry a few of her own. I ate an A1 burger, because I can.

Monday Dec 30th, 2013
I love my boys.  They looked forward to this which they dubbed "Donation Day", where we clean out their room and donate toys they no longer play with to charity.  A few years back this was a tiresome event full of whining and lack of comprehension.  This year, they literally looked forward to it. I don't know if I'm more proud of their societal awareness, or their proclivity to purge waste from a household.  Either way the day was a success.  Room clean. Closet reorganized and with a new shelf. Happy Papi.

Tuesday Dec 31st, 2013
As self proclaimed old folks, Eliz and I like to party with family on New Year's Eve, and my brother's house seems to be the place to do it. Each year there are movies, games, drinks, and other general relaxy party stuff.  This year was no exception, but add yet another round of Christmas gifts from my Grandma Charlotte's Christmas that we couldn't attend this year.  I watched Transformers for the first time, not horrible.  Joe whipped my ass at NCAA Football after I had practiced all week w/ Eliz. We watched Star Trek, counted down the Ball, I kissed the hottest woman in the world, and we ran outside to make noise with the kiddos and caught a family releasing a paper lantern into the sky.  Pretty magical stuff for some folks from da'ville. The boys passed out on my lap around 1a, and we made it home by 2ish.  Awesome memories.

Wednesday Jan 1st, 2014
I warned the boys that due to budgetary constraints, that this staycation would be quite a bit less exciting than the extravaganza that was Summer Staycation 2013. I proved it this day by letting them play with toys while I watched 4 Big Ten Bowl games. Some days, I just have to be a typical guy.

Thursday Jan 2nd, 2014
This is a day that is otherwise known as my birthday. The boys were more excited than me, understandably, and we hung out all morning.  After lunch, I took them swimming at the Community Center.  Sam is an amazing swimmer! Busting out laps in freestyle, back and breast.  Really cool stuff.  Ray is doing well in short stints in deeper water too.  I'm a very proud dad.  After an hour of swimming, I soaked up the 80 degree indoor temp while they played in the pool playground. At home, Eliz organized a little shindig in my honor, and ordered Pasquale's pizza.  My bro, his wife and my mom came over to spend the evening.  Intimate and perfect.  Fudge marble cake improvisation props go to my mom.  Amongst other things, Eliz gave me a pic of an Otter in a military uniform.  I love her so much.

Friday Jan 3rd, 2014
My great friend Mark once began a final day of vacation by stating "It's that crappy time".  Today, and anytime the boys have to go back, is that crappy time.  I won't lie, they drove me insane this vacation.  Baby talk, constant bickering, accidents.  But I wouldn't want my misery any other way. In the moment I can be pretty grouchy, but looking back, it's all hilarious.  Great stories for the future.  Learning moments.  I took that day to have a few "epic battles" with our super hero action figures, play a few rounds of Magic Jinn, and of course, end our time together with our "what was your favorite part" session.  I love my boys, and no matter how crazy they can make me, they're mine and I wouldn't trade them for anything. I hope one day they'll move back into town.  Until then, I'll make every weekend count.


The bottom line is, I have a crazy amount of amazing people and fortune in my life.  So many reasons to be thankful. I just hope when I'm down, I can remember that and get back up again.

Wedding.

So I've told Elizabeth a thousand times that even though I want to get married, it really wouldn't change things.  Two days in, I was wrong.  And I didn't know that I could love somebody as much as I love her.

The year, and even days, leading up to the wedding, Eliz and I fought.  A lot.  And the topic was pretty much the same everytime.  We could barely have a conversation about the wedding without me getting upset about something and us ending up pissed at one another. She is black, I am brown.  She wanted a Lamborghini, I had to have a Ferrari.

So the night before, we tuck the boys in bed, pack our final things, kiss, and go to bed like we always do.  It just felt like a Friday.  We woke up, went on our separate ways to the venue. My mom took the boys and I out for a plain, stomach friendly lunch at Panera.  After finishing, we arrived at the venue, and not 30 seconds later, my 5 year old had completely pissed his pants.  Disaster surrounds this boy, luckily my mom was there to save the day, and we hadn't yet dressed them in their suits :)

We get inside and start setting up. I decide to head up to the balcony to work on our homemade photo booth, which separated me from the crowd of friends and family setting up below. 20 mins later I peer down at the main floor where the decorations had begun to take shape.  It was at this moment I knew I was in trouble.  It looked amazing.  I eat crow.  Hats off to Eliz and Sherry.  Job well done. Most of the next 4 hours was a blur.  Setting up. Glad handing, although I was genuinely glad to be hanging out with everyone.  My friends and family were such a great help, support, and company that day.  The main thing I remember about joe and the booth, brian and the backdrop, erick and my boys was how positive everyone was. In a time in my life when I've been spun towards bitter, this was so refreshing.  It was good.

Fast forward to the ceremony.  I looped a song to last 10 mins for the bridesmaids entrances.  Good thing I did, her vows were left back at the barnhouse where she got dressed.  A few mins later and and an out of breath bridesmaid brought on my second favorite moment of the day, my beautiful Elizabeth walking through the doors. I was having a hard time maintaining my composure, so I grabbed Ray's hand and held it until she made it down the isle. I cried. I'm a cryer.  Deal with it. I was surprised, however, she had chosen a dress with heavy inspiration from yesteryear.  Very brown of her. She was beautiful.  The most beautiful.  And it was time to lock that down.  Our dear friend Brad married us.  He went through a lot to get ordained and did an amazing job of officiating, while making us feel at home. I can't say enough about how much it meant to have a close friend up there performing the ceremony.  It didn't feel like ceremony at all, it just felt like us.

We had the boys take part in a unity ceremony with us.  Instead of candles, we each took our namesake Avenger Lego figure and placed them together under a lego arch.  It was silly and unprofessional, just the way I like it. They are a huge part of our family unit, so it felt right to have something geared towards them in our ceremony.  My favorite part of the day was the vows.  We wrote our own.  I'm glad we did. I did my best to deliver mine, only to choke up when the heavy hitting words came up.  But Elizabeth killed me.  Every word she spoke was from her heart.  And I knew that she was speaking directly to mine.  Unwittingly, we both finished with a line from our first dance, I will follow you into the dark. I'll be honest.  The rest of the evening was amazing.  Great reception.  But it all could have ended after her vow.

The reception was fun (for me at least). There was kick ass rock and roll music, there was Pasquale's food: including a large pizza, just for me. It was great eating, dancing, and visiting with everyone.  Speeches were made (Kaitlyn, you killed me), cupcakes were eaten, Cha Cha's were slid. But I have to say it was a blur. Yes, I was sober, but between all the little events & obligations, I felt like I wasn't spending much time with my boys or my wife. The slow dances were great, it's like time stands still for a moment where you can share an embrace with your betrothed. Speaking of dances, the kids stole the show.  Ray came out of his shell, even more than normal, and provided us with soulful interpretations to the best club bangers. I did take a few moments to pause and look at all of the people, happy, supporting us on our important day.

The end of the reception drew neigh, I rushed around to help tear stuff down and gather things so Eliz didn't have to, and rushed her out the door before she managed to stick around to clean too much. The white Christmas lights they put up in the park outside the barn gave off the perfect glow as we said our goodbye to the venue. We had a small happy hour with some friends at our hotel bar.  It was like a classic scene at the end of a movie when the whole cast shares a drink and a few laughs to resolve the story.  This was more like a few drinks and a lot of laughs: Erick waltzing in to buy a round of shots and dip out like a ninja, baseball cards, fake hotel Christmas gifts.  Then the quote of the year by my brother: "It's 2013 and I'm here to say..." We were a bit tipsy and cut him off at that point to chide him.  Then he started again and delivered the Best Man speech that he refused to give during the wedding.  Love him.

I probably can't write too much about the rest of the evening, lest my wife get embarrassed. So in brief fashion, a cork about took my eye out, I got to remove a dress, and I spent the rest of the evening falling more in love with Elizabeth than I ever thought possible.

Here's to a lifetime of continuing that.