Christmastide 2025-26

It’s not yet Candlemas, so I still have time to write up my usual Christmas summary post! We’ll take it back to the last week before Christmas and go up to Epiphany. Don’t worry; nothing exciting has happened in the last week+, so this post should suffice for awhile.

End of Advent

We finished our decorating on the 19th so things would be especially festive for the joint birthday party Edie and her boyfriend were holding on the 20th. It was a lot of older teens and young adults in the house, so Tony and I tried to stay out of the way and let everyone enjoy themselves. That night as the party was winding down, Addie and her fiancé Adam arrived. The next day Tony, Addie and Adam made ravioli. I was busy with all the last minute things, but finally started making cookies on the 23rd. Byron arrived late that night on the train.

Christmas Eve

I finally wrapped up all the gifts, only realizing once I’d started that we were woefully low on wrapping supplies. But I finished and we went to our friend’s Christmas Eve open house and our big kids got to catch up with their big kids. We got home and lit the candles on our Christmas tree and sang carols. It would be the only time we’d get to do a tree lighting as this was the driest tree we’d ever gotten and it was barely safe enough to do the lighting this one time. Only Edie went to midnight Mass with her boyfriend; some of us retired at a reasonable hour. Other’s stayed up working on last minute presents.

Christmas Day

I was the first awake (as usual these days) and dealt with all our elderly pets who need tending to first thing in the morning. But it wasn’t long before everyone else started to stir. We brew a lot more coffee in the morning with everyone here, and I had an extra panettone on hand too. Everyone tore into their stockings and Addie’s fiancé even got his own stocking this year. As for presents, it was a big year for holiday sweaters, slippers, and fancy toiletries/ skincare. We all went to 10:30 a.m. mass and snagged a family photo, then went home for a large appetizer spread.

While we snacked, Tony and I finished making food, along with Edie who made scalloped potatoes. We set up large tables in our living room for dinner (with food on the dining room table). Edie’s boyfriend arrived, and around 3:30 we finally ate. Afterwards Addie and Adam cleared the table and did the dishes. I AM HERE FOR THE PHASE OF LIFE WHERE THE KIDS ARE HELPING WITH EVERYTHING. We digested for awhile, eventually enjoying pecan pie and Christmas cookies for dessert. That night we played a ‘Hallmark movie game’ I’d learned about on Pinterest. We found a Hallmark movie and watched the first five minutes. Based on that, we each wrote out how we thought the movie would play out. We picked a movie called ‘Hot Frosty’ which I guess was actually a spoof on Hallmark Christmas movies, but it was hilarious and we all came up with creative storylines, and in general, laughed a lot. Highly recommended! (We’ll be adding Hot Frosty to our usual Christmas movie rotation.)

Menu

• Ham
• Pineapple Stuffing
• Scalloped Potatoes
• Two Kinds of Ravioli
• Broccoli
• Shaved Brussel Sprout Salad
• Fruit Salad

The 12 Days

The next day we relaxed and ate, and played a game where we all tried to figure out who kidnapped Santa. On the 27th we went to Lancaster to visit with my parents. Byron’s girlfriend joined us for the day as well. We ate dinner, opened gifts and watched It’s a Very, Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, which I’d never heard of, and was terrible and by far the worst Muppets movie ever. Byron headed back to his place from my parent’s house, and Adam also made the drive back to Cleveland. Addie came back with us to NJ for about another week.

We continued to watch a lot of Christmas movies, the girls and I shopped at Hobby Lobby and looked for wedding DIY inspiration. We finally got another car to replace our totaled Nissan and completed a gingerbread nativity set.

New Years Eve and Day

I made a big pot of fondue and we watched Daddy’s Home 2. Addie, Edie, and Edie’s boyfriend walked downtown to the blueberry drop; it was too cold for the rest of us. We put on the Rockin’ New Year’s Eve show from Times Square and I swear, we will never watch that live again. I’ve already found some vintage Time Square shows from the 80s and 90s on YouTube featuring Dick Clark that we will watch next year.

The next day we attended Mass and stayed afterwards for a bit to enjoy baked goods and coffee. For dinner we had the mandatory pork and sauerkraut, which means 2026 is certain to be a prosperous year! Tony and I hung out with some friends later that evening.

On Friday, we all went to the local diner for breakfast before I took Addie to the train station for her trip home. The remainder of the 12 days passed in a blur.

Epiphany

We had sliders for dinner because someone requested them, but then Tony said they were liturgically correct because the wise men, “slid” into Bethlehem…so, new tradition? Since we attend the TLM, we attended Mass on the 6th in the evening, filled up two large bottles with Epiphany water, and got some blessed chalk. We only completed our house blessing on the 11th though.

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I did get all my decorations down, except for our nativity set (not the gingerbread one) and a couple of ceramic trees I like to leave up. It’s a quiet month and I’m trying to enjoy it. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas season; keep celebrating until February 2, because then we’ll start gearing up for Lent!!