We hadn’t been all together in a year and a half.
Then we got one week, all together.
Last night after an 8 hour train ride I arrived back home from my holiday week in Portland, Oregon with all of my immediate family and my fabulous nephew and brother in law.
I spent much of the week with either a camera on my iphone in front of me. I wanted to capture this all so we could have images to get us through til our next visit and to tell the story of this one.
Some of my favourite moments of this last week (and a half…I got a few days with my folks and my brother here in Vancouver) were:
~My nephew’s dancing skills. Not only can he rock out with this impressive clapping-and-running-at-the-same-time but he gets us all to join in (whether we are in public or not). He calls us all into the dance party one by one and before we know it we are all dancing to Rhianna in a restaurant. He’s charming like that.
~Christmas day. It was so good. A yummy breakfast all together and then the opening of presents. A family walk in Mount Tabor (despite the rain) and an incredible dinner with many of the dishes I grew up eating each xmas at my great-grandparents farm. We all pitched in with cooking which meant it wasn’t all on one person, which felt important. We ended the day with desert and a walk at Peacock Lane.
~Simplicity. I love that my family doesn’t go wild at christmas with presents. We have a family draw and get one person to buy for at a reasonable price limit. Gifts rock, but the best gift really was being together.
~Christmas Eve books. This is by far my favourite part of Christmas. I think the tradition of getting a xmas eve book started so my parents wouldn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn christmas day as we would then have books to keep us busy until at least 7am! Now having a bit of fiction to devour feels like a big part of the holidays to me. This year one of my books was The Hunger Games
~Getting time with each of my family. My brother lives on the other end of the country and I hadn’t seen him in a year and a half. Skype rocks for keeping in touch but there is really nothing like getting a whole week together. I get more time with my sister, brother in law and nephew and see my folks a couple times a year. I’m making plans to go back east to Ontario this year and see more family. My life here in Vancouver is great in so many ways but it is hard living so far away from family.
How was your holidays? Your celebrations? What was your favourite moment of the last week?