This year, “Home for the holidays” really took on its true meaning for us. I mean, we had three Christmas celebrations with three different portions of family in three different locations, but we spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s at home, in OUR house, just the three of us. Was it a little selfish? Maybe. Was it fun, amazing, and wonderful? Yes.
I took two weeks off work which was just barely enough. We celebrated Christmas with my Mom’s family on 12/22 and had the usual great time with the Petersons at Keana’s great grandparent’s house in Los Altos. She adores her second cousins (which are closer to her age than mine). They’re still years ahead of her, but lots of fun. And now that Keana is walking, running, and talking, she’s just a like a “real person” to them now, which means running all over the house, passing out gifts together, and sharing gifts- at least for a moment or two. At dinner she sat on Great Grandpa’s end of the table and even got him to play a little game of “I’ll throw my toy on the floor and you pick it up for me” which lasted longer than I thought it would. It’s good to see I’m not the only softy for those baby-blues. Keana also enjoyed a nice dance session with Great Grandma Jacquie after dinner. Great Grandma kept an excellent beat and Keana obliged with some nice shakin’ of the tail feathers. Keana was having such a blast that night that we couldn’t get her to go to bed and she stayed up till almost midnight.
The next day we spent time with my immediate family for a mellower Christmas celebration. Keana had a great day walking around in Grandma’s shoes and playing on the floor of the kitchen while dinner was being prepared. She loves to say, “Boots are walkin'” which often spawns round after round of the song, “Those Boots Are Made for Walkin'” to which she dances and calls out for more verses at the end of each previous verse. She never gets tired of dancing to that song. That night while opening gifts we had a great time with tons of laughs. Pretty much any time we get Uncle Peter in the mix, laughter is never far behind, and we all feed off of eachother’s stories and laughter until the night is late. Christmas Eve morning we packed up our loot and headed back to the east bay.
On Christmas Eve I bbq’d some New York steaks to get our stomachs prepped for the amazing rib roast that Sarah fixed on Christmas. Sarah and I also made biscuits and gravy for a special Christmas breakfast. And because it was just the three of us, we moved at our own pace, opening gifts all day long and Keana got a chance to enjoy each gift as she opened it, before moving on to the next. I also felt that we really had time to enjoy eachother and especially Keana which was something new for a big holiday event such as Christmas. Eventually the last gift was opened, only bones were left on the table after dinner, and it was time for Ms. Keana to don her PJs and sleep out of her second Christmas and on towards the new year.
The next day we packed up our gifts and our cooler and headed to Great Grandma Bev’s house—which overlooks Millerton Lake outside of Fresno—to celebrate Christmas once again, this time with Sarah’s immediate family. We spent a couple days up there and had lots of fun, including a great dance party with Keana leading the way, paying tribute to the recently deceased Godfather of Soul, James Brown. We also had a chance to make a visit to the snow up by Shaver Lake and it was gorgeous—bright and sunny and clean with fresh snow. Keana’s very first encounter with snow was tentative. She did walk a little on it, with the help of Tia Iana and Rachael, and Sarah was able to feed her a little bit to try it out on the tastebuds. So it was a fun, new experience and I’m sure she’ll dig the snow to a much higher degree when she’s older.
On 12/29, once again, we packed up our loot, said our goodbyes, and hit the road back to the east bay. Keana’s break-down, complete with tears and screams of “I hold your hand!”, an hour from home was a clear signal that she was ready for a break from our holiday tour schedule.
In the following days the new year approached and started without much event. It was amazing to think back on 2006 and remember the major life events that took place. Here’s just a few:
- Keana’s first steps (and subsequently running, jumping, and more dancing)
- Keana’s first birthday
- The beginning of sentences
- Keana’s first plane ride and trip to Hawaii
- Our second wedding anniversary
- Grandma Linda turned 50
- Great Grandma Ellie passed away
365 days is a long stretch. And given the fact that most major events in life, good and bad, happen in split seconds, a year is bound to be packed full of both. Day six of 2007 is coming to a close and we can only look forward, ready to laugh, cry, walk, crawl, and dance through the other 358.
Happy New Year and good night.
If I didn’t already mention this, we have six Christmases this year. You can’t have too many right? Or can you? Anyway, we all met at Great Grandma Jacquie and Great Grandpa Vic’s for Maia’s first Peterson Christmas on the 21st. Maia was around last year, but she was only 3 weeks old—and Keana was sick—so we had to skip out last year. But we were there in full force this year. Keana had a blast playing with her second cousins McKenna (9th grade), Cassidy (6th grade), and Riley (4th grade) and I think Maia had fun too. She wandered from room to room charming everyone in her cute little Christmas kilt. It was the first time Uncle Vic, Kristie, and the cousins had met Maia, so I think that was pretty special. It was a great time, as usual, and we had lots of laughs and of course the girls got tons of gifts. It’s great to have such generous family since we don’t really have the resources to buy Keana and Maia all the fun things they get this time of year. Aunt Janet had to work at 6:45 the next morning, so we all took off a little earlier than usual (around 8 p.m.). It was pouring rain on the way home and both girls fell fast asleep while Mama and Papa debriefed the night.
