Since I was absent from the blog during the winter holidays, I didn’t get a chance to post about how they went for us. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary or exciting, to be honest. We were so tired of constant travelling and being away from home that the idea of not going anywhere for a change and spending some quiet time home seemed AMAZING!
Thanksgiving was much more fun than usual as we gathered together with some friends and their kids.
I love this picture below, and I am sure both the girls will pretty much hate me for posting it, since it was candid, but it is just so real: talking, yawning, lying down, mid-run, one the phone and mid-wave. Rarely do I get to capture life, because I tend to be busy living it when it happens.
Here Lexi was quietly sitting and thinking about something after waking up from a long nap. We even joked that something was wrong with her because she was so quiet which never happens.
Oh still in diapers, it seems like it was so long ago…. hanging out with our friends’ 2.5 year old.
Lexi finally coming to life, armed with a… screwdriver… hm…
This a typical European behavior- drinking olive oil from the bottle! Just kidding, but I would honestly totally expect that from him… or something equally weird/cool.
{Outfits: Cat dress and pink shrug by Lourdes, white rose sweater by Polarn O Pyret}
And that was our Thanksgiving. Lots of food, Grand Marnier cake, the same one as we had for Lexi’s First Bday, a little bit of goofing around and a late bedtime.
What did you guys do?
(I’m truly interested because holidays mean a lot more now that we have Lexi, but we don’t have a big family here or up north to celebrate it with traditional style, so we are always looking for ideas on how to make it special for just the three of us)
I can’t believe your putting up pictures from Thanksgiving, lol. Curious as to what you guys are, cause aren’t you vegan vegetarian? Do you offer your daughter meats?
I love it! Glad you had a good turkey day. Your shirt is so pretty! It’s a cool blue sparkle in one photo and almost has a gold tint to it in another. Looks great on you! And Lexi is darling as usual.
Actually, looks like you have a pretty big group to celebrate with :), and not just the three of you.
For us, it depends – sometimes we visit friends, sometimes we have family over. I love Christmas spirit of charitable giving and general excitement, music, decorations, but I am lukewarm to the whole craziness about Santa, gifts, etc. After all, I grew up never celebrating any type of Christmas, and here New Year is not really a big deal, so I am a fish out of water, holiday-wise. My husband is Brazilian-American, he grew up with the whole Christmas eve/Christmas morning stuff, and has celebrated Thanksgiving, and the New Years (Brazilian style). So, he kind of sets the tone for our holidays, especially now, that we have kids. I have never been into the magic of Santa as a kid (what soviet kid ever thought Santa was real?), but I will absolutely go along and do this for my children, mostly because it seems to be very important to my husband 🙂 I still think that eventually, when the kids are older, we will do volunteer work and donations in place of at least some gifts for Christmas, rather than have a ton of toys to open and forget about 15 min later. I would like to bring more meaning into our celebration.
I also put a lot of emphasis on food: I actually love the full table – turkey, the works. When it was only my husband and I, we would often do duck. For me, getting ready to celebrate is buying and preparing special treats. Nothing vegan here – he-he-he. I love a nice cheese course and there is aways wine and bubbly. Sparkling wine goes with everything, so it is a perfect drink for the holidays (or just any day).
I am totally over the white Christmas – it is overrated – I have spent Christmas (or New Years) on the east coast, in CA, in Brazil, and in Russia and I can confidently say that weather-wise Brazil is where it’s at. Jokes aside, weather is ultimately not that important – holidays for me is the attitude – you can make it count with a large group, or with a small family;
Love this, Irina!!!
Thank you so much for sharing!!! :)))))
And yes, I love my hot sunny winter holidays!
“WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO?”
Spent it with my husband’s side of the family. We tend to do that for Thanksgiving since it’s more of a big deal and his family in Washington is closer than my family (California) . We have family spread around the world (Asia and Europe) but fortunately, we also have family in the country on both coasts. Flying our families in is something we also do. It’s pricey but worth it.
For Chanakuh, we spend it with his family too since they’re the Jewish(ish) ones. But for Christmas, we spend it with both our families on different says. Sometimes combined. It’s nice to know there are 12 days of Christmas so the pressure isn’t on to only have that “one” special day.
On Christmas Day, we’ve started the tradition of getting dim sum. It’s more of a Jewish thing but everyone else has the right to do it. Love dim sum! My husband and I don’t give each other gifts since we get so much stuff throughout the year and we don’t really like that pressure. But since we’re expecting our first child in late summer, we’re going to suck it up and fall into the holiday crazy when Baby is around!
Thanks for sharing!!!! Sounds wonderful! We don’t exchange gifts with hubby either for the same reason unless we find something perfect!