The Bailey Planet : The Holiday Season - Bailey Edition December 2024

It's the holiday season, and Santa Claus is comin' round...

Hopefully Todd doesn't plan on stabbing Santa with this massive icicle! Dang!

Of course, early on in the month of December, St. Nicholas always pays a visit to our house and fills the kids boots with candy and silly gifts! Grant was grumpy (mornings, amirite?) but the rest of us were ridiculous before work and school!

Todd's gym had a great holiday party where plenty of (real) superlatives were handed out. The 7am'ers handed out their OWN superlatives, on the back of paper plates. Todd won the best single parent award, of course! I mean... I WAS gone for a really long time!

7am'ers in the house! They're super fun. I wish I had time and money to join this group!

We snapped a pretty cute picture on our way out of the holiday party. Until next year, Firewall! (Or until Brian's next backyard party!)

We missed our anniversary because I was deployed to Augusta, so we grabbed some dinner at 7 South Bottle + Kitchen a month later. It looks like that sprig of rosemary is stabbing me in the face!

Santa paid a visit to our neighborhood, too! This is actually a super funny story. Grant had CCD Sunday evening but we wanted to catch Santa driving by on Fruit Street. We went out to the main road, saw Santa accompanied by a bunch of police and fire trucks (very loud!), and then Grant and I rushed back home to hop in the car and go to CCD. Somewhere along the way, Grant's girlfriend Taisyia FaceTimed him. He picked up, but he was running - and I don't know what happened after that. However, a few minutes later, Natalie got a text from Taisyia that said, "Tell me why when I tried to FaceTime Grant, he picked up and he was running and there were police sirens." LOL!

I was only home for like, 10 days when I had to go on another work trip. Here I am intently studying the mesoscale hurricane models at Logan Airport. Ok, just kidding. I'm at the bar.

I was, of course, on my way to Miami and the National Hurricane Program's end of year meeting for a few days at the National Hurricane Center.

I met up with some of my coworkers at the Dolphin Mall the first evening I was there. They were trying to get into the holiday spirit by spraying bubble snow. I mean, it WAS mid December after all. But it was like, 70 degrees.

The National Hurricane Center sits on the campus of Florida International University, which has a pretty campus! Natalie applied to FIU and while I was there, she was accepted!

I was SO SO SO excited to see my bestie Ayala when I was in South Florida! We met over at Coral Gables at a fantastic restaurant called Luca Osteria. Gimme all the amazing Italian food. Ayala is a foodie so I always follow her recommendations. It was awesome. And just so fun to spend time with her!

The craziest thing about this picture is that I wouldn't be here if they hadn't given me this temporary position as the Hurricane Program Manager for Region 1. I have always loved meteorology and very specifically... hurricanes. As a child, I would be glued to The Weather Channel (and then I worked there!) during hurricanes. I would even plot tropical cyclones on a grease pencil laminated tracking chart. I loved it so much, I got a master's degree in geosciences/broadcast meteorology and worked at The Weather Channel for many years. So to visit the NHC for the first time was a really incredible experience!

I knew the Storm Surge pole was here and I was SO excited to see it in person! Run from water, hide from wind! The red part at the top is the 9-12 foot storm surge range.

I felt really bad that I missed Natalie's LAST winter choral concert (again... how many times in one year can I feel really bad about missing milestones in my children's lives?). She was really mad at me, but I was able to FaceTime in. Grant was sweet enough to hold the phone for the ENTIRE show.

Finally... I was able to go home to my family. Goodbye Miami cruise terminal! We sailed out of there on our Oasis of the Seas cruise in April!

I landed at Logan and took the Plymouth-Brockton bus down to my in-laws where Aunt Betty, Todd, Helen, Kathleen, Warren, Carole and I got to see an amazing one man showing of A Christmas Carol.

The best part was that I was completely convinced that the guy who performed the entire show on his own was British but he wasn't! He was incredible!

The next morning, we went over to Aunt Betty's house for a little Christmas cheer.

Steve, Helen, Todd and Kathleen wanted to do a little sibling photo shoot while we were at Aunt Betty's house since she has the perfect curtains and lighting for it. Now you're probably thinking... wait, Steve was there? YES! He totally surprised us ALL and showed up from Maryland for the family holiday weekend! Now that's the best Christmas present ever!!!

This was the BEST photo of all time! How funny is this!?

While the Bailey siblings were doing their photoshoot, my Bailey kiddos were sitting quietly in Aunt Betty's living room, looking all cute! Grant got this awesome Icelandic wool sweater from Aunt Betty that he really loves!

My babies with their great aunt Betty. Every family needs a cool Aunt Betty in their lives!

Later in the day, we did our annual family Yankee swap. A good time was had by all of the elder statesmen of the Bailey family!

Natalie, Seth, Carole, me, Grant and Todd having a little delicious lasagna and salad dinner.

Every time Natalie and her cousin GoGo get together, they do a little dancing - the oldest boy cousin and the youngest girl cousin!

Back at the ranch, it was cookie makin' season.

And the Sunday before Christmas, we wrangled three kids, threw them in the back seat of the family truckster and drove down to the Magic of Lights in Foxborough, our (since Covid times) annual tradition. This year, we grabbed Grant's girlfriend. Wait. What did you say? Yep. I know I mentioned this above, but I don't even know. I'm still processing this.

It was magical, of course.

And finally... it was Christmas Eve! We took our annual Christmas family photo before we went to church in Holliston.

And then of course, we had to take a "pretend like you're laughing" photo. These are always my favorite. Honestly, WHAT are you doing Grant???

My babies. The last year Natalie will be here at home with us on a permanent basis.

And my handsome boys.

Me and my babies. I cannot even stand how fast the years have gone.

My babies and their dad. Grant is catching up!

How is this tiny, little, smooshy baby going to college in a few months? I'm just not ready. As I always tell her, "Why are you leaving me alone with these boys???"

After church, we started a new Christmas Eve tradition. Our usual Christmas Eve dinner location - Uno's on Route 9 - closed down this year. We have been going there on Christmas Eve (minus the Germany years) since the kids were tiny. This year, we went to Bertucci's in Holliston. Because nothing else is open!

We'll toast to a happy Christmas and to the delicious bread rolls that they serve at Bertucci's!

Close your eyes and make a wish as you throw the reindeer dust! (Just kidding... totally random they both had their eyes closed in this picture!)

Voila! Please find our house, Rudolph and your reindeer buddies!

Grant does this kind of stuff on purpose. What is he looking at? The kiddos were opening up their Christmas Eve gifts (always pajamas)!

And then the kids pretended like they were asleep.

And then the kids pretend like they were laughing at Todd's reading of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. Although eventually their fake laughter turns into real laughter, as you can see here.

Finally, the kids went to their rooms and there was peace on earth and presents in the living room.

And then it was Christmas morning! The kids always come out and tackle their stockings first.

Then we have to pretend to run down the stairs to see what Santa brought us. But Grant decided to pretend to fall down the stairs. What an actor!

The end of Grant and Natalie's Christmas morning performance.

And then it was on to the living room to open up our Christmas presents!

My buddy opening up a Christmas present. Please note his Christmas Eve pajama pants, which are Auburn colors.

Todd was well behaved this year, so he got some gifts too.

The kids opened the family gift together, which was a box inside of a box inside of a box inside of a box. Maybe inside of another box, I can't remember. We got Busch Gardens tickets for our upcoming trip to Florida!