When I think back on the past few months ...I get tired. This Christmas especially has been exhausting . The kids have been sick on and off , we traveled a little more then we usually do and Mark had a kidney stone three days before Christmas. Currently those little munchkins are almost making me wish the Christmas break was over so some of them will be in school for most of the day. Since they haven't been feeling well there has been a lot more whining, fighting and crying.
In spite of all that we have had a great time! We attended a Santa Clause parade , picked and cut our Christmas tree, we walked around the neighborhood admiring the lights and delivering packages of homemade cookies to neighbors, they were pleased to see a troupe of kids and an enthusiastic dog wishing them a merry Christmas. We visited Lakeside Park and admired those lights, we visited relatives for a Christmas party and then had one at our house and then there is always Christmas morning :). When the kids get older , I would like to add caroling to the to do list, or maybe some volunteer time.
This year I watched the silly statements surrounding the term "Merry Christmas" as opposed to "X-mas or happy holidays appear on social media again. Along with those type of statements come ones like "Jesus is the Reason for the Season". Is he really? Truthfully? I think it is all about the presents. The gift giving overshadows almost everything in Christmas. We listen to the bible story at least once and then it is back to the anticipation of presents. How could I change that for our family? I'm still trying to figure it out. This year the kids exchanged names and picked out gifts for each other so at least they could experience the "giving" part of Christmas as well as the getting. I told them that Christmas is Jesus's birthday , but instead of getting presents Himself , He wants us to give to others. Hopefully we can figure out different ways of doing that later :)
We celebrated New Years Eve watching tv while the kids slept. I think if I were anywhere else I would be wishing that I was there on the couch watching a British TV series with my husband and eating some disturbingly good chocolate caramel pretzels (disturbing because Mark does not like pretzels , so I will end up eating all of them). This morning I slept in to 7:00 am while my amazing husband dealt with kids squeezing the dog's new squeaky toy above his head down stairs. When I got up they had all charged upstairs and were very excited to eat breakfast. Hannah was jumping/dancing and singing as loud as she possibly could about Jesus and waffles (those were the two words I could understand). There was lots of jostling , teasing more singing and finally they were quiet for a few minutes as they ate breakfast. My husband was irritated by the noise (possibly due to the dog toy earlier) but I am smiling inside. We are starting the new year with singing and dancing - featuring an original song by Hannah Hawkins (Jesus and waffles), what could possibly be better?
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| Sarah enjoying her birthday party - which is in early December |
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| decorating the tree |
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| Hannah doing more decorating rather then trying to eat ornaments this year |
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