I have worked so much this week, I have barely had a break.
He said
What a Christmas week we had! It started out last Sunday having the entire Teeter family at our house as half of Testza’s Kitchener household was sick or coming down with something. It was so nice to kick off our Christmas week with our house full with Teeter family. Monday I was at work and then my Christmas mini break started at 5pm on Monday night. I was off Tuesday through Christmas Day on Thursday. It was a nice three day stretch to slow down with Danielle and Emelia. And one Christmas Eve on Wednesday, we had Matthew and Shawn over to watch Christmas movies and just be together. After all the loss we have experienced over the last few years, it was really nice to have a lot of family time this year. It was good for all of us.
This year given that it was Emelia’s first full year of university and with how proud we are of how she is making out with everything, all while juggling the last few years of significant loss, we really wanted to do something special for Emelia for Christmas. There were two priorities for us this year with her: one, to make sure we maximized any opportunity to be together with family; and two, to surprise with with a little extra this year. Anyone who knows Emelia, will know that her Christmas lists are always filled with practical, responsible gift requests. She is always super mindful of how much things cost and curates a list that is reasonable to wallets. She is practical to a fault.
It’s why the one thing that wasn’t on her list that we knew deep down she wanted was under consideration was AirPods Max. A really good Black Friday sale came up and we decided it was the one nice, really big surprise we would gift Emelia with this Christmas. It wasn’t on her list because she was responsible enough to know it was a big ask and practical enough to make her wish list be reasonable. Given our families’ loss over the last few years and specifically Emelia’s inside of that, we wanted to make this Christmas extra special for her.
Suffice it to say she was surprised. We worked through all the presents and one by one we worked through the things she had on her wish list. As she worked through the presents she was delighted but had no idea of the last one to come. Danielle skillfully wrapped the last present inside of a series of three packages, each wrapped inside the other. And in each box it, the shape was off just enough that she had no idea what was going on. It wasn’t until the wrapping came off the very last box that she finally recognized what the gift was and suffice it to say she was absolutely surprised. And we couldn’t have been happier with this Christmas. And it was what we all needed.
She said
This last week was all about family for us and family and friends for Emelia. It all started last week with our first family gathering after a night of Emelia having all her friends over. After a few very late nights with friends we had a sleep in Christmas morning for the first time since Emelia was born. For the first time we had to drag her out of bed. The morning was at a slow pace, since John and I had decided not to exchange gifts this year, and our gifts from Emelia are one on one dates together with her she was the only one who had presents to open. As John has already said Emelia is very practical with her gift lists, she rarely asks for big brand labels for gifts, she never expects to get everything on her list and she is always reasonable on her asks. In passing a few times she had mentioned that she might save for herself to buy some replacement headphones to get some real noise cancelling headphones for studying. She was starting to save for AirPod Pro Max headphones. John and I had talked about if we could make it work. I went to in reaseaxh and planning mode, after a ton of searches I was able to score a great prices on all of her gifts and a big Black Friday price on the headphones made it all possible. John and I wanted to make sure that we really surprised her, so we made sure it was her last gift, it was triple wrapped and needless to say she was beyond shocked! It was worth it to see her reaction.
For the rest of the week we are on very different paths as a family. John and Emelia since Boxing Day have both worked constantly and I have had a few days off to myself. Emelia is ready for a real break soon and hoping that it will come this coming week once she is done this latest stretch. I know that she is hoping to have a big New Years after a really busy month. Emelia had been go go go for weeks. We could not be prouder of how she has managed it all, she has been balancing a full course load, two jobs, her cheer team and ensuring she still has a bit of a social life. Right now she and a couple of her girls are hanging out to let her have a bit of down time. I know she is really hoping that her New Year’s Eve celebration to move into 2026!