This year Hanukkah started the Sunday before Christmas so the holidays overlapped.  Not my preference, but clearly I have no say in the matter.  For the first night of Hanukkah, we went to my parents where we celebrated and ate latkes.Harper is still deathly afraid of fire so she goes in another room when we are lighting the menorah.

Monday night we took our annual family pajama pictures in front of the tree, which were the girls Hanukkah presents from the prior night.I had just come home from a haircut after having gone 10 months without one. I had intended to go darker in color for a change…the cut was not meant to be so layered!  I’m not the biggest fan…but it will grow back.  Granted it is hard to notice my hair color when I have a triangle reflecting in the middle of my forehead! Someone whose name starts with E decided she wasn’t in the mood for silly family pictures.  We told her we would do a serious one next, but she had quickly escaped as she was not feeling our crazy antics. Tuesday was Christmas Eve. We captured pictures in front of the tree in less than a rushed fashion than usual.  I can’t believe how old and grown up they are becoming! Not sure what was so funny, but apparently something had these girls giggling! The self timer normally does the trick, not this year…Justin was scalped! We somehow made it to the 5:00 VPC Church service at 4:30, a record for us for sure!  We indulged at PF Chang’s for dinner for the 5^th year in a row!  We debated switching it up due to the not so great experience we had last year, but the $25 gift card we had (from the less than stellar customer service) coupled with the fact that it really is a special night out since we only go there on Christmas Eve led us back to try one more time before we were ready to call it quits.  Fortunately, dinner and service were good so we will likely be back next year.

Tuesday night we all stayed up a little too late before getting to bed.  Let’s be funny. No, let’s be serious. Emerson was the first to get up at 7:20 the following morning and wanted nothing more to wake her sisters up.  She patiently waited…a little Netflix time helped her patience!  By 8:05, both Avery and Harper had woken up and we made our way downstairs!Santa was especially generous this year with his stockings!  At least for the girls….Mommy and Daddy’s stockings could have been a little plumper, but I guess Santa had priorities.

Santa also brought the girls some great presents.  Nothing too extravagant, but a combination of things that were on their list and things he thought they would enjoy. Breakfast was healthy chocolate muffins, healthy lemon muffins, scrambled eggs, fresh berries, and lots of bacon!   Justin and I prepared some of the food Christmas Eve after the girls went to bed so we could enjoy Christmas morning with the girls over spending tons of time in the kitchen.  Breakfast was delicious.  It was small though in terms of people.  This is the first year since we have been in our new house where Christmas has been just the five of us.  Karolin joined our family before Harper even turned one and since then we have had Mila and Larissa join our family and spend multiple Christmases with us.  It was weird truthfully in a way….kind of realizing that we are truly in the next phase our journey.

After breakfast, we sat around the tree and opened family presents.  The absolute best part of family presents were the girls gifts to me and Justin and to one another.  Justin and I debated taking the girls to get presents for one another; we decided not to primarily because Justin and I would need to carve out the time to do so, and sadly it wasn’t something we wanted to add to our plate.  We didn’t tell the girls we weren’t going to not do this, we just didn’t do it.  THEY took it upon themselves to make their own gifts by regifting, making coupon books, making cards, and giving their own money.  I could not have been prouder of them.  They made individual gifts and teamed up to make joint gifts. They fight more often than I like and sometimes I wonder if they really love one another.  Their gifts to one another were so caring and filled with love.  Emerson made coupon books for both Avery and Harper which consisted of helping them with their homework, taking their dishes over to the sink, and making their beds. Avery gave everyone in the family $5 cash. Avery also bought a stuffed animal for Harper and Emerson the day before Christmas, when she happened to be the only kid home and have the opportunity to go to the drugstore with Justin.  She knew Emerson and Harper may not have had the opportunity to do the same, and she was okay with that.  Avery and Harper regifted some of their toys, bracelets, and made some new bracelets for one another.  Harper made a card demonstrating her love to the entire family. Honestly, my heart was so happy that they secretly took it upon themselves to be creative and make gifts for one another for Christmas because they cared!

The girls big Christmas present from Justin and I was a trip to Philadelphia. We gave the girls a card that said “pack your bags, we are going to Philly” tomorrow!

The afternoon was spent going for a family walk in the neighborhood, playing with gifts, preparing a delicious dinner of pork chimichurri where Grandma and Grandpa joined us, and packing for our trip.  It really was a great Christmas…M-unit was small this year, but our love big.

After eight years of patching, Dr. Seidman gave Avery the okay to stop!  This day seemed so far away when she was a baby knowing that statistics often indicated kids who wore a patch, often wore it until around age eight as vision often continued to improve up until this age.

Avery’s vision was relatively similar in both eyes over the year so she alternated patching eyes. When she was a baby she patched for two hours per day, alternating eyes every other day.  Once she entered kindergarten and was in school for eight hours per day, patching for two hours a day became a little trickier.  Wiith Dr. Seidman’s approval, we reduced patching time and on average patched each eye for a total of four to five hours a week.  At some point during her years of patching (pre-k perhaps), we switched from Ortopad one-time use patches to felt patches that went directly on her glasses.

There were times where Avery didn’t want to wear her patch and her negotiation tactics were in full force (i.e. wanting to put it on when she was done with breakfast, after she finished her homework or reading, not when she was riding her bike, not when she was watching T.V, not when she was tired, etc…you get the point!), but overall she obliged and wore it knowing that it was making her eyes stronger.

Avery’s vision has in fact improved over the years.  When Avery was a toddler and up until kindergarten, her vision was in the 20/250 or 20/200 range depending on the doctor visit.  That was actually in the legally blind range.  In the past few years her vision has improved and her most recent visit, her vision measured 20/100.  We’ll never know if the improvement was due to age, her patching, her ability to compensate, or other factors.  Likely it was a combination of many factors, and in the end the result is more important than the why.

Avery knows she sees differently than others.  She accepts it, never questions why her and not someone else, she ironically sees more details than many people with normal vision such as myself.  She choses to see the glass as half full.   Stopping her patch was a day that she has been anticipating for years!!  

She certainly has come a long way!

Thanksgiving 2019 was quieter then it has been in the last few years.  With no au pairs, my grandma and Justin’s family not joining us, coupled with Thanksgiving being at my parents and bringing appetizers with little prep ahead work, it was a quiet and relaxed morning.  The girls had planned on watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  While watching the parade, they realized they had no skit for this year.  They went into action and together created costumes and a play. The mess that they were making in the den made me proud.  Emerson really took the lead and directed both the costume design and the play.

We ate.  We had enough food for twice the number of us.

Bacon wrapped dates…delicious by the way!

We played a thankful game, that Avery took the lead on putting together.

The girls performed their skit.  Emerson a pilgrim.  Harper a turkey.  Avery Squanto.

Friday afternoon we met my high school girl friends, Allison, Sarah, and Lauren and their families at Vanish Brewery.  As always, it is like no time has passed when I talk to these ladies.  Twenty-four years of friendship still going strong.  Seeing our kids together – conversating, playing and having a great time makes my heart so incredibly happy.

Thankful for this life, for this family, for these friendships.