Lauren B. Lentini

Since we obviously didn’t take any big vacations or do much of anything besides work this year, I ended up having surplus PTO even after rolling over and selling back the maximum amounts. So I took off the last days of the year, starting with Wednesday. It works out to 12 days off, including weekends, and so they shall be known as the 12 days of Christmas and chronicled as such. Because I am a massive dork. And the song is a list, so it’s thematic.

On the 1st day of Christmas, 2020 gave to me…

Sleep sleepy sleepy sleep sleep. Most of 2020 has been a struggle for me not to fall asleep. I basically tick all the boxes for sleep apnea. I had a sleep study and everything, but it recorded 4 incidents instead of the minimum 5 for treatment. I’ve been trying to self-treat with good sleep hygiene, which is hilarious because, hi, I have anxiety. So I take a lot of naps. And I doubled down on that for my first day of Christmas vacation. At one point, Jordan woke me up with the cold cup of coffee I hadn’t finished before snoozing—brr! And sorry, couch.

On the 2nd day of Christmas, 2020 gave to me…

A brand-new daddy…wait, what? I casually opened the Christmas card with the return address I didn’t recognize, puzzled over the unfamiliar signature, and handed it to Jerald. Who noticed the folded letter tucked behind it. Which stated that, if I was the [my maiden name] who signed into ancestry.com in 2018, he was my biological father.

[Pause for effect]

[Cue hysterical giggling]

I look exactly like my father. And I act like him to a degree that I’m not entirely comfortable with. Plus I’ve never logged into ancestry.com, so there’s that. I texted a photo of the letter to my mom with “Is there something you want to tell me??” and a few LOL emojis. He didn’t actually include his contact info, just the return address from his place of business, but I may try to track down his email and send him a message. Because, while I am not the Lauren he’s looking for, I’d hate for him to think that he had found her and she didn’t want anything to do with him. He should keep looking.

On the 3rd day of Christmas, 2020 gave to me…

A small but delightful holiday. It goes without saying that I wish we had been able to spend the day with more of our family, but I kind of loved our quiet Christmas. I can’t even tell you how adorable Jordan was this year (once we convinced him to come downstairs). He saw his new tricycle, shouted “bicycle!” and climbed right on it. He seemed doubtful that tearing open wrapping paper might be worth his while, but he was delighted with each new toy. The car ramp/garage is a clear favorite, but he wanted to play with everything as soon as he opened it. He has the cutest way of saying “Will you help?” when he wants into a box.

In the afternoon, we joined the rest of our pod, my sisters-in-law and their kids. I feel so incredibly lucky that we’ve had them this year, yesterday especially. There were more presents, delicious food (eggplant parm—my favorite), wine, eggnog, and FaceTime with family. Jude gave me a makeover while I played video games with Jack. Jordan amused himself in the walk-in closet, saying “Bye Mommy, I love you!” as he closed the doors and emerging wearing a pink hat. He also ate all the strawberries out of the edible arrangement, including the chocolate-covered ones, but only after I removed—OK, ate—the chocolate for him. (“Will you help?”)

On the 4th day of Christmas, 2020 gave to me…

A lazy day of playing with new toys. Jordan has spent hours today sitting quietly under the tree, making cars slide down the ramp, stacking pegs according to shape, and driving his Duplo train. He wouldn’t go upstairs for a nap without his new backpack full of musical instruments, and he performed a concert before bed.

During naptime, I unboxed my new Cricut Joy. There will be so many blogs in 2021 about all the things I’m going to make with it, as soon as I have some materials. (Apparently I requested this year’s hottest gift, who knew!) Jerald only received an IOU for a new TV for Christmas, because ours is on the fritz. But he’s been playing the new video game he got for himself, so I guess that counts. Unfortunately, we missed the family Zoom. (I may have been napping.) We would usually spend Boxing Day with our extended family, and I miss them a lot.

To be continued…

We don’t really have plans for the rest of the 12 days, so I can’t promise great content, but I wouldn’t be a blogger without a year-end wrap-up post. I actually met my goal of reading 20 books this year, so you can look forward to my thoughts on those. And I have plenty of hopes for next year being better than this one (ha!).