Normal

Those were about the longest and shortest five days of Christmas ever. Okay, we only actually celebrated Christmas three of those days, but still. Ex-hausting. Luke loved every minute of his first Christmas, though. On Christmas Eve he met many of my extended relatives for the first time, and while it took awhile for him to feel comfortable, he didn't cling or cry. I cried a few times after getting trapped in some conversations with my crazy relatives.

We followed up with hosting Christmas Day at our home - my first time hosting. Our meal was off, we certainly haven't got big meal preparation down. But when Esposo's aunt and cousins (and spouses and child) came over, it was fairly comfortable with all 20 people in the house. Luke played with his cousins until the last second, diving right into a wrestling match with his uncle and not minding one bit when he was crawled over, stepped on, and generally battered as the youngest and smallest there. What did he care? He was in the middle of it all!!

And finally we celebrated with more of Esposo's cousins on Christmas After - eight kids 6 and under. Luke wasn't as involved then, preferring to just play with toys or hang out and eat, but he was happy to be there. Considering how introverted his parents are (I am exhausted from seeing so many people, and could handle no human contact for about 2-3 days to recoup) it surprises me how much Luke loves being around other people, whether he knows them or not.

Today I am back at work, and not mentally here at all - basically decompressing. So far I've had 40 ounces of water to attempt to rehydrate inside-out and taken one Benedryl to stem the mucus flow from my nose (pretty thought, I know).