It all happened so fast- both the year and also the Christmas season. After so many years of parenting, this year felt like I finally had it down. We made a list of important traditions, planned parties and celebrated with everyone we loved.

We kicked it off with our Christmas card and mailed them the night before Thanksgiving. Planning was involved because for the second year in a row, Brendan was cast as the Boy in The Velveteen Rabbit. It’s such a special show and has quickly become part of our holiday celebration (and our friends and family too!).

We hosted my mom’s family Christmas Party (and it snowed!!) and the O’Brien’s hosted their friends’ party. Both were a lot of fun to see people.

The Enchanted Village is always a favorite tradition. This year we went on December 23rd. There was no one there! There was no line for the Enchanted Village or ice skating. By the time the boys finished skating it was time for the Polar Express. It was a great day! Separately the boys also humored me and visited Santa.

Christmas Eve was the Christmas Pageant. It was Brendan’s last year in the Pageant (he also sang) and it was also Emilee’s first pageant- she was Baby Jesus! It’s so much fun having a new baby in the family.

Christmas Day we spent time with family. We stayed in PJs most of the day (again they humored me and wore matching ones!), enjoyed each other and our families. We even had Chinese food as Christmas dinner!

And then our adventure  began….

Here it is!

It’s been a grinch of a year (mostly of the orange variety) so this year’s card “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” seemed quite appropriate. It also happens to be the 60th anniversary of the publishing of the book.

Brendan had this idea several years ago but coming up with how to pull it off seemed a bit tricky. But with weeks (months) of planning time- we think we did a pretty good job. What’s an O’Brien Family Christmas card without costumes, wigs and make up – especially when Brendan is the mastermind?!

The background was the icing on the cake- a last minute find on Amazon. Special thanks to the Tinlin family who let us borrow the Santa top and Maureen for taking pictures.

We have a lot of fun making our funny cards and we hope that they bring a smile or laugh when they are opened. It’s one of our favorite traditions!

Past O’Brien Family Christmas Cards:
2016- Love Big, Live Big, Celebrate Big
2015- Home Alone
2014- A Christmas Story
2013- Stringing Up the Lights
2012- Deck the Halls

The days leading up to this year’s Thanksgiving I worked on drafts for two chapters for my book project. One was about Community Servings- the Jewish community’s response to the AIDS crisis, a customized meal delivery program. The second about one of the founder of the Living Center and the BLC Thanksgiving Dinner.

I bought a couple of pies to support Community Servings annual fundraiser. I also posted a few pictures on Instagram remembering Thanksgiving Dinners past (this year’s dinner will be held in December). It was a nice way to remember to be thankful and just, remember.

Thanksgiving Day was a great day- we celebrated with family and enjoyed Emilee’s first Thanksgiving (well she slept through most of it). We try to remember how very lucky we are and try to be thankful all year but it’s nice to take the time to remember just how much we have to be grateful for.