We’re headed into a week that should be busy and Rotary filled so the past several days we’ve been focused on family and got to enjoy a lot of family traditions.

On Thursday, Kai’s girlfriend, Beau came to visit and spend time with our family. We played on the Wii for awhile and when Kai and Beau went off to hang out, Evan and I went out to a coffee shop.

Friday I got to reconnect with an old high school friend and in the evening, we went out to dinner theater with family. Dinner theater is a consistent family event. Evan and I go with Kai, my parents, grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousin every couple months to see shows. The winter show this year, White Christmas, used to be an annual show so seeing it again felt even more special.

New Year’s Eve was spent on our family’s traditional way. A day buying gifts and preparing for “second Christmas” on New Year’s Day which we spend with my Great-Grandma Dee followed by a quiet night at home with lots of appetizers and a cider toast. At the stroke of midnight, we clinked glasses and headed into 2023. We started celebrating Evan’s 23rd birthday and I got busy on making a late night birthday cake.

Today was a mini Christmas family day which includes Santa Bear, our version of White Elephant, and the traditional gifting of ugly swans. We had dinner that evening with my Grandma Clark, my other great-grandma. We’re ending the evening playing Dungeons and Dragons with Kai and my cousin Sebastian, doing a campaign I wrote at Evan’s request for a birthday/Christmas gift, and snacking on what’s left of the chai tres leche cake I made for Evan.

We’ve enjoyed our first year out of a long distance relationship and are looking forward to continuing our Coddiwomple into 2023.