Christmas Gone Sideways pt.2

Our usual Decmber checklist didn’t exactly get completed this year. Some things were nixed, some adapted, some non-negotiable.

• Decorate inside and outside for the holidays: Due to renovation, the inside didn’t get the full treatment. Due to hiring the entrepreneurial young adult neighbor and some strong winds, the outside was uninspiring. I’d say this one happened, but not completed to its potential.

• Listen to Christmas music: Yes, but some essential ones missed this year include Donde Esta Santa Claus, Santa Tell Me, Pretty Little Dolly, I Want a Hippopotamus, All I Want for Christmas (two front teeth version), and the Chipmunks. But we did add I Want an Alien for Christmas, I Don’t Know What Christmas Is, and Here It Is Christmastime.

• Watch I Wish it Was Christmas Today SNL skit: Done. Many times. Always brings a smile.

• Set up and hang ornaments on the Christmas tree: Done. Working on a post detailing this.

• Complete Christmas movie watchlist: Nope. I’d classify this Christmas as blasphemous. We didn’t even finish watching Elf.

• Bake and decorate cookies: Nope.

• Walk around the neighborhood to see Christmas lights: Nope.

• Bake Jesus’s birthday cake: Nope.

• Eat early dinner at our favorite Chinese food restaurant on Christmas Eve: Nope. But this is not a casualty of Covid, or maybe indirectly. Our favorite place closed earlier this year. We had made alternative plans to order from Din Tai Fung. So we did get our Chinese food on Christmas Eve.

• Attend candlelight service in-person or virtually: Nope. A quick Christmas Eve prayer before dinner.

• Sing Hallelujah Chorus: No singing, but I did listen…on my iPad…on Christmas night. Because, too many other traditions fell by the wayside.

• Open gift from Jovie, Snowbelle, and Cozy on Christmas Eve: Yep. The elves were a bit rushed and late with their delivery, but it happened.

• Stay up past midnight wrapping gifts: Nope. Gifts were all wrapped and under tree by 11pm. Stayed up until 4:30am with insomnia instead.

• Put Trader Joe’s chocolate croissants out to rise for Christmas breakfast: Nope. Forgot to get them. Trader Joe’s needs delivery or curbside.

• Bake chocolate croissants while kids look through stockings: Not croissants. @cleverdevil made some Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. I slowly woke up and joined the stocking emptying.

• Enjoy warm drinks and croissants as gifts are opened: Nope. Masks up. No eating in the same vicinity as Covid positive #cleverkiddos

• Snuggle and give hugs and kisses in joy and gratitude: Nope. Instead, felt sad about having to tell #cleverkiddos to back up, give me space

• Connect while kids go through each gift and decide what is going to get their undivided attention first: Sort of. At the expense of resetting our exposure clock, we spent too much time in the same room with #cleverkiddos. There was some half-hearted connection laced with fears and doubt about how much exposure we were allowing.

• Make side dishes for Christmas dinner: Nope

• Help @cleverdevil pursue the perfect Christmas roast: Nope. However we did problem solve about how to get the porchetta to actual reheat, how to time the premade side dishes, and how many Sister Schuberts rolls to warm up.

• Sing Happy Birthday and eat Jesus’s birthday cake: Nope.

• Hang out in the same room as a family, appreciating a day of connection: Not really. There was some fun playing Apple Arcade’s Song Pop Party while FaceTiming. And then there was some mommy playing solo so she could unlock more categories, and then her trying to entice her siblings to play with her, and then maybe a couple rounds of the Elvis specific category.

• Binge-watch tv and movies you’ve missed or loved over the past year(or more): Yep.

• Spend last week of December in Palm Desert: Not looking good, but hoping to get there for the first week of January.

• Jump in the pool (or at least dip a toe in) after the New Year Countdown: Nope. Maybe the hot tub?

  Did we do anything new that we will add for next year? We’ll likely stick with Din Tai Fung for our Christmas Eve Dinner. There’s not much else that I’m excited about repeating ever again.

  Oh, one thing I will add for next year is watching SNL Christmas Special 2022 with Austin Butler. Those sketches, Lizzo’s performances, and him singing Blue Christmas for Cecily are definitely tradition-worthy.