feliz navidad

Most people who are close to me know that Christmas is a HUGE deal for me.  HUGE.  It has always been my favorite time of year and one that that is met with much joy and anticipation on my calendar.  Not because I woke up to all of my dreams from the pages of the Sears catalog under the tree every year growing up, but because I have such sweet sweet memories of moments with my favorite people:  making Spritz cookies with my mum, watching It's a Wonderful Life curled up next to my dad, making truffles w/ Josh, decorating the tree,  holiday choir concerts (I'm the girl who starts listening to Christmas music in July).  Those kind of things are the icing on my sugar cookies.

I was all kinds of crazy excited for Christmas 2012.  It was the first time in three years that I had been with my parents and brother on Christmas Day and gotten to do the whole crazy-chaotic-house-filled-with-aunts-uncles-counsins annual celebration at my grandpa and grandma Pearson's house.  Philip and I were especially excited because we also got to see and spend time with his parents and his aunts/uncles/cousins on his mom's side of the family AND see his (paternal) grandfather.  Lots of love.  Lots of excitement.

This year I did something I will NEVER do again:  buy plane tickets 10 days before Christmas.  Oy.  I had known we would be wise to wait to finalize travel plans until we knew what Philip's school schedule would be (that was unclear until early December) and I knew exactly what was going down with internship interviews (final notification date was not until 15 December. . . thus the delay in ticket booking).  The week we traveled was CRAAAAZY:
* Monday - I woke up at 2 am, took a train to Manhattan, had an interview, took a train back from Manhattan - got back to DC at Midnight
* Tuesday - woke up at 2:30 am, drove to Philadelphia and back
* Wednesday - worked at George Mason Univ. all day
* Thurs - woke up at  2:30 am, drove to NYC [first time managing Manhattan rush hour - I totally rocked it if I may say so myself. . .], interviewed, drove back to DC
* Fri - Skype interview in the morning, packed our bags and met Philip at airport at 12:30.

Needless to say, I was ready to get on a plane, fly AWAY and have an internship-free week for the entire next week.  It was glorious.  

Here's a glimpse at the love and the laughter from the week:

Celebrating with the Robinsons. . . had a marvelous time and much laughter was had playing games with this clan. . .

 

IHEARTMYSECONDSETOFPARENTS!!!!!  

It's pretty obvious where my husband gets his good looks, isn't it?

 
My mum gave "tea ring" making (a very Scandinavian treat) lessons at our German family gathering

Stealing a kiss at church.  Don't worry, we're married so it's "worship". . .

MY BRAD-EE!  One of my mom's younger brothers.  Love this guy.  Love.

Tea ring making in action. . .

 I love both of the guys in this picture.  The little one is adorable.  The other one is just SMOKIN HOT and going to be an INCREDIBLE dad someday, don't you think?

 Annika + Nico = a new form of Cross Fit

 but the engineer was not to be outdone. . .

 strategery. . .

 mom and uncle Brad looking through Grandma Bernice's family cookbook (that my crazy organized mom typed up on a typewriter as a teenager). . .

first Christmas as Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Pearson
 











 
viva la musica. . .

 Christmas isn't quite the same without shenanigans with this fellow

 or this one. . .

 okay - story on the photo above --> as of this December, i am now the only married, child-bearing-aged female who is not pregnant or a parent on both sides of the family (with the exception of my new sister-in-law, but they just got married in July, so I mean you've gotta give them a break).  I feel as though my parents must inevitably feel left out on the whole grandparent train thing.  While I'm definitely not close to mommydom, I did revive the campaign for getting a pet pig (you may have remembered it from our England days) this year.  Now that I'm not so overwhelmed by school stress, I have more energy to devote to some of my passionate causes (that just so happen to get my spouse and parents kind of riled up).  Well, I spent quite a bit of time telling them how when Philip is in Afghanistan, I am fully within my right to get myself a pet pig and really, there's little anyone can do to prevent me from doing so.  Well. . . for one of my dad's Christmas presents - rather than getting him a huge frame for a picture of his first grandchild - I got him a nice (giant) frame with a note that it was for a picture of his first GRANDPIGGY!  I'm a wonderful daughter.  I know. 

With my grandma Pearson (above) who got to spend Christmas with her FIRST GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER (below) --- my cousin Heather gave birth on the 20th and was bravely and boldly with babe in arms at our 32-person Christmas Day celebration this year

the Pearsons always sing (lots of) carols before any packages are opened.  always.  and the singing cannot start before the dishes are finished.

we were very blessed to take a day to travel to Jackson, MN to spend time with Grandpa Bud (Paul's dad)

I know that it's going to be the last Christmas for awhile where there is this much "togetherness," so I worked hard to soak up every moment I possibly could.  I have no clue where I will be in December 2013.  No clue.  All I know is that my best friend will be on the other side of the planet.  I've been able to compartmentalize that really well until this last week.  With less than three full months left, I feel time slipping through my fingers like sand at a disturbingly rapid pace.   The more tightly I fasten my grip, the more quickly the grains fall at my feet.  I'm doing my best not to look down.