Farewell Christmas, Welcome New Year

I just took the Christmas tree down. As in, I just literally closed the box of ornaments before sitting down to write this post.  Every year when this time comes it breaks my heart just a little. Since the end of November I have been living in a Christmas wonderland haze filled with Christmas cookie baking, present wrapping, holiday music playing, and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas reading.  It's been a busy and good holiday for us Boyds this year, and wrapping it all up and putting it away always brings me down a bit.

Pre-Christmas cookie baking.

But as much as I hate putting away the last vestiges of holiday lovin' around here, I am also really looking forward to this New Year because we'll be kicking it off in a big way this time: in a new home.

Yes, we've finally made the leap to home ownership, and the month ahead will be a busy blur of packing up boxes and digging through closets to separate the "keep" from the "definitely not keeping" piles.

Christmas tree decorating at Za Za's house.

A new space.  Our new space. It brings a smile to my face just to say it. We've been thinking about a move for so long I was beginning to wonder if that was all it would ever be, a thought, our big and distant dream.  It inspires and excites me in new ways to finally be standing at this moment where our own home is actually a reality. More to come on this later. For now here's a peek at our Christmas holiday blast.

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house.  It brings me right back to my childhood every year we gather here. Putting up and decorating the tree, eating the traditional chicken soup dinner and too many German Christmas cookies, tearing open gifts after singing a few carols. It was great.

Decorating the tree on Christmas Eve.

Oliver and Jake figuring out what goes were.

Baby Charlotte's first Christmas.

 And then, bright and early on Christmas morning it was off to Victoria on the 9am ferry, where more family, more cookies, and more Christmas magic awaited us.

"Nana's house!"

 Jake is loving anything that goes choo choo right now.  Somehow Santa must have gotten wind of this because he delivered in a big way: choo choo trains in various shapes and sizes, a train station, and accessories, books and crafts.


He never actually told me in so many words, but I am pretty sure this Christmas was all his dreams come true.

We stayed in Victoria for the whole week after Christmas, and each day brought new adventures and surprises.  Like impromptu piano concerts (who knew there would be not one but two child prodigies in the family), and family walks down to the beach to have rock throwing contests.

Jake decorated his very first gingerbread train, although it's quite possible more icing ended up in his tummy than anywhere else.

 We visited the Christmas tree display at the Empress Hotel and got stuck at the construction truck themed one for a good 20 minutes.

Old friends came over for to catch up over snacks and Christmas cookies, and whatever time wasn't spent entertaining friends, or gallivanting around town chasing different adventures was spent down in Nana's den playing with a generation old tow truck and a two generation old train set.

The next generation of cool hanging out by the snack table.

We ended our holiday with a very special trip to the Royal BC Museum.  It was my first trip, and it was impressive.  We started out on the third floor where they had an entire section set up to simulate and old turn of the century town.  There was a dress shop, and a hotel, a gold mine, and a cannery. It reminded me of something out of Anne of Green Gables, British Columbia version.  And of course, there was a train station, where every 5 minutes the room would fill with the sounds and rumblings of a steam engine rolling through. Like his father years before him, Jake waited patiently on the old wooden benches for one train after another to whoosh by.

A rainbow outside the museum.

Let's just say, we'll be going back. 

He was not, however, as impressed by the life sized woolly mammoth at the exhibit.  To be fair he was really big and woolly and made weird noises.

When it was all done, and we were tucked back in our little apartment in Vancouver, I couldn't believe it had all happened.  It had been seven days, and Christmas already felt like it had been months ago. It was so busy, it was so worth every single moment.

No calm after this storm though.  Packing boxes awaits!  I've learned in the last couple of days that there is a lot more stuff tucked into the crevasses of this apartment than I originally thought could possibly be.

Happy New Year everyone! Happiness, health, and love all round.

The Boyds.