I don't like posting about big holidays. It feels like a lot of pressure to remember it all correctly and to purge through the mass (or lack there of) of photos. But, I'm gonna do it anyway. (And since I totally skipped over posting about Thanksgiving...whoops!)
This year I really just wasn't into the holidays. I was so distracted that I let the advent season slip by with no meaningful preparation in my heart for what Christmas is really all about, Jesus. This year was a complete contradiction from last year. This year I was just so overwhelmed with my life. Christmas is also my birthday, and I really just wanted to forget it because I was (am) far from who I want to be right now. Another year on the books was just another reminder of that.
We didn't put out a lot of decorations. The kids were just attacking them and it was so frustrating. We lost a lot of ornaments due to sticky fingers, and by the end of December our tree had taken such a beating that only 1/3 of the lights still worked. I didn't bake anything. I tried to do a few Christmas crafts with the kids, but those just went south.
Hmm...what a downer start to a Christmas post. Sorry!
Not all was bad. The kids LOVED Christmas lights in the neighborhood and became obsessed with seeing Frosty the Snowman and Baby Jesus everywhere. They took a good picture with Santa and had fun opening gifts. Our families were AMAZINGLY generous toward us and our children with meals, get-togethers, and gifts.
Xavier had a "Happy Birthday Jesus" party at school just before the winter break. Walter and I both went. It was lots of fun to see him with his little preschool friends. They did a mini-concert of a few simple songs. We made a craft and had a book exchange with the class.
Our church did Christmas services a little different this year. In addition to services on Christmas Eve, there were services on Christmas Eve Eve too. We went to that on Friday night. I was volunteering and the kids ministry was limited, so we just took Elliott and my mom kept the boys. I hate that we didn't bring them to church on Christmas, but I can only do so much, and wasn't up to having them in the regular service.
On Christmas Eve we went to my parents house for dinner and gifts. The boys looked pretty cute.
We celebrated my birthday and the boys were all about eating my lemon cake!
The kids got some nice things and everyone made fun of me because I put pillows and mattress pads on their Christmas lists (don't worry, they got plenty of toys too). On our way home we drove around a little to see Christmas lights. Elliott fell asleep in the car and proceeded to sleep for the next 6 hours straight. MY FAVORITE CHRISTMAS GIFT BY FAR!!
Christmas morning the boys opened a few gifts from Grandpa Walter (Santa!) and gave me some birthday cards. We had both our families over for brunch. They brought all the food and it was soooo good! Elliott's birthday gift to me was taking a 2 1/2 hour morning nap. It's not that I don't love the kid, but it was so nice to eat a meal not holding him! After everyone left the 5 of us all took a much needed afternoon nap. (See how this post is now being dominated by sleep and nap talk -- yeah, that's how important it is to me right now!)
Christmas Day evening we headed to Grandpa Tom's family Christmas. HOLY SCHMOLY! I've never seen such a pile of presents and massive gift opening by what seemed to be about 50 people. I was sitting in a chair with Elliott sleeping in my lap trying not to have a panic attack from everything that was going on in front of me. Don't get me wrong, it was fun, but just not something I'm familiar with, coming from a fairly small family.
I did a terrible job taking pictures of Christmas this year, so sorry it's (really) sparse.
MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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