I must admit that I really struggled with the idea of spending Christmas at home, just the two of us, and not being able to spend the holidays with other people. I struggled with my expectations for Christmas and the fact that they would inevitably not even get close to being met this year. But 2020 has been almost an entire year of either adjusting expectations or accepting unmet expectations, so you would think that we would get used to at some point...
In any case, we made the best of it and Hal was able to get part of Christmas Eve off and all of Christmas Day. We decided that having a Christmas tree wouldn't be possible this year because of our sweet and adorable bird who would have used it as either a perch, a chew toy, or a toilet ... most likely all three! We also didn't have a lot of money to spend. So, we got a bunch of empty boxes, a ton of free wrapping paper and ribbons that they were giving away at Hal's work (it was last year's stock - I'm still not sure why they didn't just sell it), a Little Debbie's display that wasn't being used, some stockings from Dollarama, and got creative! Here is the end result! It was actually quite cute! And some of the wrapped presents are actually real gifts that we bought for Belle and for ourselves.
Belle (our sweet, adorable bird) was absolutely terrified of it the first day that we set it up but, by the next day, had decided that it was a grand new playground for her! She loves tearing apart paper so she unwrapped the presents in the stockings and ripped Hal's name tag off of his stocking. She also threw the candy canes onto the ground, did a pretty good number tearing up the inside of the stockings (hence why we didn't spend a lot of money on them), and had lots of fun crawling all over everything! It really only looked as cute as in the photo for about a day, but Belle had fun with it and we had some really good laughs while watching her.
Hal bought a bunch of Lindt dark chocolate balls, which he knows that I love, and hid them all around the apartment for me to find on Christmas Eve while he was at work. In the beginning, I must admit that I was not amused at having to do a scavenger hunt but, once I had come across a couple of them, decided that it would be fun to find the rest.
Christmas Day ended up being a rather warm (for Montreal) but rainy day, with not a spot of snow on the ground. We went for a long walk together and were greeted by the happy faces of other individuals, couples and families who were also out for a walk and to visit at a distance with friends. Hal then made an amazing Christmas Dinner of turkey, mashed sweet potatoes, roasted broccoli and my mom's sunny sprouts recipe with brussel sprouts, carrots and celery. The meal was so delicious! Here's the chef with his creation...
Like most of 2020, it was a very different kind of Christmas, but we were thankful for the time that we got to spend with each other, the many laughs that Belle gave us as we watched her play on the Christmas decorations and talk and laugh (yes, she talks and has also learned how to laugh ... she will even laugh in response to us laughing), the smiling faces of strangers, really good food, and the great conversations that we were able to have with our parents. Christmas 2020 wasn't at all what we were expecting, but it was nonetheless a blessing!
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