Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, er Groundhog Day?

True to form, we’re late on this blog post as well, but I guess late is better than never. Technically we’ve survived another holiday season. And it gives pause to realize that what’s supposed to be one of the happiest times of the year is so often thought of in this way. In our case, it’s more than a bit of melodrama, as we’ve actually had a lovely, if stressful, vacation. It started with a well-orchestrated Christmas Eve. The kiddos had school (daycare) as per usual, except that they closed early at 3:00, so Jess had to leave super early to pick them up, then get them home, bathed, fed, and dressed for church. I, on the other hand, was playing for the early service, so I had to leave work equally early to get to church.

As I was heading out the door in the morning, I quick-ironed my ivory dress shirt only to discover that it was a bit pink in the front (it’s always the front, right?). There wasn’t much I could do at that point (don’t worry; I washed it later along with some new clothes we got for Christmas, and the pink is no longer an issue. . . now it’s mostly light blue!), so I put it into the car and figured the sports coat would mostly obscure the technicolor failure. Work was a bit stressful as I tried to finish up everything imaginable before taking a longish vacation. It’s one of those impossible goals that we all set and then stress over. Nevertheless, I made a decent amount of headway and left in time to grab a cup of coffee before I had to get to church and warm up. The service went pretty well until I had to sight-transpose Silent Night essentially in the dark. It was a nice challenge and a reminder that I really need to buy a lightweight stand light (thank you, world’s dimmest LED). At least it’s a pretty easy and familiar tune. At the end of the service Pastor Sara asked the congregation to show their appreciation for the musicians. I guess you should be careful what you ask for as we received a less-than-enthusiastic golf clap. After the service, several regulars informed me that they could not really clap with hot-wax-dripping-candles in their hands.

About 30 minutes before the second service Jess, Phoebe, and Benjamin showed up. It was great to see them, and the kiddos looked super cute in the Christmas outfits. Benjamin was wearing a great button-down shirt and a vest and Phoebe had a nice dress. She even had allowed mom to brush her wild mane; what a treat! The service was pretty enjoyable; however, I personally could have done without the voice-over style narration for the spoken parts of the Christmas story. I also would have liked to sing a bit more, but the choir sounded great, and Hannah (our choir director) was brilliant as always. The kids were pretty well behaved, and battery-powered candles were a big hit with them during Silent Night; Benjamin even liked the taste, I guess. By the time we got them home, they both crashed.

In many ways, we are very lucky parents. Christmas morning we were able to sleep in until around 8:00, and even then we instigated wake-up. I made a camping-style breakfast with bacon and scrambled eggs and brewed the first of several pots of coffee. We opened our Santa gifts (really just overloaded stockings as we downplay the SC thing in the Gribble household), then followed breakfast with family gifts—including the new digital piano. Thankfully the piano has been a big hit so far. With luck that will continue once lessons start and we all transform from key bangers to pianists.

After the dust began to settle from round 1, Phoebe and I loaded into the car to make an airport run to pick up the reinforcement (Grandpa Hazelton)! We left exactly when Jess recommended, but were a little late arriving as Grandpa was already waiting at the baggage carousel. Phoebe refused to run up and give him a hug; I guess living so far away causes some shyness at the beginning of visits. The drive back was fairly quick, but we did start to receive some more light snow (it’s been a White Christmas here along the Front Range this year). We stopped for a cup of coffee and some hot chocolate at the coffee shop by the house (they were closing just as I ran in), and delivered Grandpa just in time to freak out Benjamin a bit as he awoke from his afternoon nap. Unfortunately it took Benjamin a while to warm up to Grandpa every morning, but they made friends when Grandpa helped remove the packaging from several new trucks we opened during round 2 of gifts. Thankfully everyone survived to the end of the presents—if just barely. Really it’s an embarrassment of riches; grandparents take note!

Having Grandpa visit was a blast for the kiddos. The next morning we started off with some snow shoveling and breakfast before bundling the children up for their first-ever time sledding. I know this seems odd, especially for Phoebe, but there aren’t any hills (good or otherwise) in our neighborhood. Now, that would be unheard of in Pittsburgh. We had to pick up some new sleds from Jax just for the occasion. I also mounted my new GoPro (thanks Jess) to the front of the plastic toboggan for some serious hero videos. According to the directions, the adhesive mount needs at least 24 hours to properly set up. The one thing we were missing was boots for Benjamin, so he went old-school style with plastic baggies over his normal socks and shoes. The fashionista then covered up all of the function with some additional tube socks from mom’s drawer. Styling!

Before leaving for Scott Carpenter Park in Boulder, I loaded up around 100 pounds of assorted Christmas recycling into the car and some outgrown kiddo toys. We had to take two cars anyway as we cannot fit 3 adults and 2 kids into either of our cars. I dropped off a whole car load of cardboard, Styrofoam, wrapping paper, used inner tubes, and consumed electronics, and still managed to arrive just minutes behind Jess, Grandpa, and the kids at the park. In fact, I was able to capture Jess and Benjamin making the first trip down the hill in the toboggan. It’s kinda nice to have a video camera for some of these moments.

After we all made it to the top of the hill, we mounted the GoPro to the sled and sent Phoebe and Mom down for a run. They made it to the bottom just fine, but the GoPro did not! I guess you cannot short-change the glue-drying time. The video from the camera bouncing around in the sled is pretty cool, though, and there’s a great shot of Phoebe rescuing the camera from the snow at the end. After several more runs, including Phoebe making a couple of solo sleddings, we said bye to Mom and Grandpa, as they were heading to help Jess’s former coworker and friend (current) move to a new apartment. The trio made a few more runs, but soon the siren call of hot chocolate was too much to resist, and we retired to Ozo, which was packed! The hot chocolates (and coffee) were yummy, and Benjamin managed, with a bit of help, to drink it all without spilling. After a while we learned that assistance was also going to be needed with the unloading, so we met up at the new apartment and helped move everything into the cute little space. We finished up just in time for a bit of lunch before we had to head back to get Benjamin to his nap appointment. We did manage to stop at the consignment shop along the way, and in addition to off-loading some outgrown toys, we found a great pair of boots for Benjamin that he just adores. Seriously, it’s hard to get them off for sleeping!

 The rest of the holiday weekend was pretty typical. I did some remote work to catch up with the things that just couldn’t wait, and the kids kept the house in a general state of disarray. We took the whole group out for a bit of ice skating too. Phoebe really took to it by the end, but Benjamin looked a bit skeptical about the whole thing. He did, however, tolerate being pulled around the ice in a little plastic sled. He also appreciated watching from the sidelines with grandpa.

Sadly, just after Christmas we learned that Elaina, Jess’s good friend from high school, was likely to die any day as a result of her prolonged battle with cancer. Jess was able to make a quick trip back to Ohio to see her one last time, which I’m sure was a huge benefit in saying goodbye. Of course, such things are never easy, and just after landing back in Colorado Jess got the news that Elaina had died, so it was back to Ohio a couple of days later over New Year’s Eve.

Now we’re all back into the grind. I might be joining a new big band (that needs a tenor saxophonist; therefore I need a tenor sax), and Phoebe is loving gymnastics so far. We’re also busy waiting to hear what kindergarten Phoebe gets into via the lottery system and waiting for the weather to warm enough for some getaways. As always, our door is open to all of our friends. We hope to see you all in 2015.