Here she is sharing her cappuccino foam with the boys. I took N to this same coffeeshop a week later, and he said, "I am missing Omie a little bit." I got a steamed almond milk with froth to make him feel better.
The four of us got a Christmas tree that same morning at Mother Ea*rth Gardens, my favorite nursery. It was bitterly cold, but the boys don't seem to mind cold weather much this year, which has been nice.
Eating popcorn while we trim the tree. It's tied to the wall and we have mostly very inexpensive and non-glass ornaments on it this year, but it's been just fine, and after a Christmas in the hospital followed by 2 years of tabletop trees, we love having a real tree again. We even used the fireplace yesterday.
My mom showed up with some Dutch treats. My own Oma sent along a traditional Dutch apron for me and 2 traditional shirts and scarves for the boys. the boys received some very cute Sinterklaas puppets from a family friend, and J received "clog" slippers made out of foam that look just like the real thing from a short distance. Thank you, Maril*ou, Omie and Oma!
Omie also gave the boys the Christmas present from she and Opa. It was nice that they got it closer to Sinterklaas (Dutch St. Nickolas Day) so they won't be as overwhelmed with gifts then. They received two additions to their train table. I found N sleeping in bed with one of them the other day. the next night, I checked on him at about 11PM and found him sleeping inside his toy chest on top of about 10 stuffed animals.
I'm still behind on lots of things after the challenging month we had, so I'll be lucky if we get out a New Year's card this year, but I'm fairly at peace with that. I think this is our year of the simple Christmas, simple as in not spending so much, not saying yes to everything, not rushing around, and not feeling guilty about not running ourselves ragged in order to celebrate the birth of Christ. Quite honestly, so far this Advent season feels much closer to just right than it has in years.
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