I have always, ALWAYS been a “Leave Your Christmas Tree Up ‘Til February!’ person.

Always.

And I’m not trying to rid our apartment of Suma quite yet.

BUT, now that I’m a mom of two little humans, I can start to understand the “TAKE ALL CHRISTMAS DECOR DOWN ON DECEMBER 26TH!” people.

I mean, there are just so many THINGS.

Who knew that the smallest people could take up 75% of the space in our apartment with their STUFF.

Anyway, HELLO!

We are back from the Christmas holidays.

We didn’t go anywhere.

But, y’know, we were all living in Ishu’s world and no laptops were allowed (unless you were Ishu and playing games on your JL Advent Calendar).

But now Ishu’s back in school so I am here to do a quick recap of our Christmas weekend!

Friday

We got to join the Potters on the Polar Express! It was as magical as advertised and I’m so happy to have a friend who will nudge me to do the fun things, even if it feels hard to coordinate with two little ones – because the end result is usually, “I’m so happy I did that.” I’m also so grateful for a friend who makes sure that I get in the picture. Thank you for this beautiful photo of me with the babies, Jenn!

I made a TikTok video highlighting all the fun things on the train. But I’m a geriatric millennial, so I don’t know how to share that link here. I will figure that out.

Saturday

On Saturday morning, Ishu and I went to the Guitar Center. I almost signed him up for drum lessons. But that might be throwing money into the toilet at this age. Maybe in a year, we can revisit the idea.

And then, in the evening, we baked some cookies and went caroling at the fire station.

Ishu got to explore the inside of the fire house and was more than excited when the firefighters turned all the lights on the truck.

Cities are such a fun place to live during the holidays.

The trees are all lit. You hear Christmas music all around – from restaurants or rickshaw bikes or random carolers at the fire station. The buildings are all displaying red and green lights. Everyone’s all bundled up and it’s cold but not TOO cold. It feels so charming to live here during this season. It really feels so magical.

Sunday

On Sunday, Christmas Eve, we bundled up and walked across the river to eat breakfast at Egg Tuck. (They’re famous for their breakfast sandwiches and they just opened up a location near us!).

After breakfast, we walked over to Millennium Park to get a glimpse of the big Christmas tree and the ice skaters.

We then made our way over to Maggie Daley. It was such a beautiful day out. We spent a few hours there, watching Ishu go wild. He is the best version of himself when he gets enough time outdoors (I think we all are!).

In the evening, we Portaled with the grandparents while Ishu decorated his gingerbread house. And then, unfortunately for Ishu, his stomach started bothering him. Likely because of the candy in the kit. And then proceeded to throw up from 7pm to 330am -ish.

Poor little guy.

But, man. It really showed me how resilient and sweet kids can be.

The 2nd time he threw up, his whole body was heaving and shaking over the toilet. But then once it was outta him, he was so giddy and delighted that somehow his eyeballs were making tears come out of his eyes and he wasn’t even crying.

On the 8th time he vomited in the toilet, he took a sip of water and then spit it into the toilet.

He said, “Look! I spit the water on my throw-up! I broke my throw-up into two pieces and it made a different shape! It looks like a man falling!”

I mean.

HOW?

Okay, sorry for the vomit visuals.

I just needed to share how sweet this kid is, even as he’s puking all his insides out.

So, Christmas Day, we took it nice and easy.

We watched The Grinch.

We played with Ishu’s robot, Carle.

And we did our family Secret Santa on Zoom!

It’s always a highlight of the year. The gifts and guessing are fun, but it’s also just nice to have all of us be in one collective space. Even if it IS online.

Alright, I’ll be back with more mañana. Ankur and I want to take advantage of the fact that we are both home, Ishu is not, and the baby is sleeping. The Office playing in the background, booking future travels, and searching for a new couch!

GOOD DAY!

Question of the Day:

Did you travel for the holidays? Where did you go/what did you do?