Christmas 2019

This is our 3rd Christmas in the "new" house and our 1st Christmas that was more about quality than quantity. Both Cienna and AJ's lists were short, sweet and expensive! But with age and expense also comes sleeping in past 5am...something that I am truly grateful for. It was only when I became a parent that I understood why my parents had to make coffee before the present opening began!

Truth be told, I had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. Usually on December 1st I am lugging all of the decor from the back storage area to the house, putting wreaths on everything in sight and pumping Christmas music throughout the house (and car.) 2019 was a struggle for me. And I think that the reality that my kids are not little anymore made me a little sad. Eventually I kicked it into gear though and I decided that we needed a real tree (2 weeks before Christmas.) Man are they expensive! The tree lot by our house wanted $120 for a 6ft tree! I don't think so! So we got our butts back in the car and went to Lowe's. $60 for a 6ft tree is more like it! Of course it would not be a Mazotti trip to the store if we didn't all disagree for an hour about which tree to buy, but we did it!

Ricardo, our life-size nutcracker, stood by the door per usual, and Diesel did too!

Tiny Quinn and Tiny QT came back for a month of mischief starting with Tiny Quinn barfing. Which was fitting because both Cienna and AJ had just gotten over barfing during Thanksgiving break.

By Christmas Eve we were ready for the fat man to make an appearance! The stockings were hung on the buffet with care with hopes that Santa would bring hundreds of dollars of stuff to the kids with care!

The smiles are genuine. Santa did not disappoint!

My final Christmas protest was not doing Christmas cards this year. I...just...couldn't...do...it. So this was a good as we came to an "official" Mazotti family picture in 2019!

Merry Christmas!