Hello sweet + patient friends and blog readers!
My goodness, it has been a crazy busy couple of months. I should know by now not to make overly ambitious goals for myself- life always, always ends up getting in the way! This time it was nearly a month (November) of my little family fighting cold after cold, and then another month (December) packed to the brim with not only lovely Christmas, but also the wedding of my dear sister-in-law.
At the beginning of December, knowing how busy the month ahead of me was going to be, I decided to try my hardest to take at least one photo every day. I knew blogging was going to have to go on the back burner, but I wanted to at least capture a little bit of what our holidays were like in the midst of the craziness. And I am so very glad I did! I love looking back on these pictures of how we spent our days. I had been feeling a bit melancholy, thinking that we did not do that much to celebrate Christmas this year- these photos convince me otherwise...
December 1:
Although we were not able to do it every night, we attempted to do some sort of Advent reading/activity with the kids as often as we could during the weeks leading up to Christmas. We kept it really simple with just the one candle that we lit every night at dinner. This night we read a little bit of the Christmas story from our favorite Bible.
December 2:
This is the night we set up our Christmas tree. The kids really got into it this year, which was so fun! Of course, Elliot broke a few ornaments in the process...I learned to set out the felt and other soft ornaments for him to handle and put on the lower branches of the tree. I love the photo above of Audrey admiring my ballet slippers ornament. It was my very favorite and most treasured ornament as a child and now it is her favorite as well!
December 3:
As part of our Advent activity this night we painted pictures in Christmas colors to give to our extended family.
December 4:
On our late night drive to the westside, completely engrossed in watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. We decided to celebrate Christmas with my family early in the month, rather than attempting the drive later when things got really busy with Kelsey's wedding.
December 5:
Me + my beautiful sister Amanda. We finally got some much needed alone time (it had been almost six years since we had had any time together without any kids present!). We spent our time eating lunch at the super yummy restaurant she works at, and wandering through the little shops in the town where she lives. It was so so good to reconnect with her! I love her so.
My sister, Phil, and their darling little Indiana. Such a sweet boy!
My pretty Audrey Mae!
We spent the evening of the 5th at my mom and Rick's, eating homemade beef stew and peppermint ice-cream, exchanging gifts, and giggling at all the cute things the kids did and said together. Audrey and Elliot were thrilled to get $15 each from Oma and Opa to spend on whatever they desired. A month later and Audrey is still packing around her little red paper "purse", talking about how she is saving up for "Ja-Kit" (I told her it will take awhile, but she is determined!). It was so nice to spend time with family, especially earlier in the month before we were feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. It felt slow and relaxed instead of frantic. Thanks for a great visit everyone!
P.S. Jamie + Caleb + Christian: We missed you so much! Hopefully we will get to catch up next time we are over!