Between the years

[Yes, it's been a looooooooooooong time since I last posted...]

I'm sitting in my nicely decorated living room/dining area (we have one of those open floor plans) and enjoying Christmas music, our tree, the decorations, etc. In our extended family, this time is known as "between the years", and we drag out the celebrating as long as we can. Our immediate family sometimes gets downright fanatical about it, celebrating Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, the Second Holiday --- and then tacking on our made-up Third Holiday --- before going on to celebrate New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Epiphany, and whatever other "holidays" we can pretend fall between all of those.

This year has been somewhat subdued. About a week before Christmas, Youngest Child announced early one morning, "I think you should rush me to the hospital". While I thought that was a bit alarmist, I did agree that he needed to see the doctor. Turned out he had bronchitis which was quickly turning into pneumonia. The next day, it was Child #5 who had to go to the doctor, for a milder case of the same sickness. Soon it seemed that all of us were sneezing, hacking, coughing, blowing our noses, etc.

I've assembled, over the past three years, a growing assortment of Christmas and generic winter music on my laptop, and we've had fun streaming this to the stereo over AirTunes. At least I've had fun. I think some of my children have questioned my musical tastes a few times.

We've enjoyed some delicious meals.

It's been wonderful having Eldest Son home with us.

We're gearing up for our annual New Year's Eve Bash. Hopefully my cough and extremely low level of energy will be things of the past by then.

Hope everyone else is enjoying this time "between the years"!