December 4 & 5

Bah-humbug! 

That sums up how I’m feeling right now.  Between my being sick and the kids taking turns being sick and the warm weather, I’m not feeling the whole Christmas spirit thingy right now.  I know, I know…this is all a bit of downer right now.  Sorry. 

So what’s a sick mom to do on December days when she’s sick and not feeling the Christmas spirit?

December 4

 

maybe a little knitting and watching a little Downton Abbey…

December 5

and chilling with my sweet baby girl who is also sick…and reading lots of books and knitting for when the sitting still gets a bit old.

Hopefully tomorrow will look a little different even though I am enjoying getting some rest and all of the snuggles.  {smile}

Linking to:

Christmas 2011 memories

The decorations are put away.  The Christmas food goodies are almost gone.  But the memories…they last forever! 

Our Christmas was wonderful.  I really loved having Christmas fall on a Sunday.  My Mom, Dad, and Uncle came to worship with us on that day.  I loved that.  Then we all went to our Little White House for some family fellowship.  And I only got one picture on the actual day of Christmas – one. whole.picture.  Not even a good one at that…

However, that’s not all of our pictures.  We have some wonderful memories from our 2011 Christmas.

Christmas with family and many cousins

A Christmas parade (one of two that the kids went to this year) and lots of candy catching

Friends and gingerbread houses

Lots of laughs, candy, and icing (and two mamas had some time to talk)

 (cracks me up every year but each gingerbread house always reflects the personality of the maker)

Christmas lights at Roseland

 

 See the smile on his face?  That’s because he was bouncing the ball that floats on the water! 

Opening a joint gift to all the kiddos (the one in which we surprised them!)

Christmas was great and now we are just enjoying some days of hanging out with each other and cleaning the house before we start a new year and school starts up again.

I hope you and your family have had a wonderful Christmas season.  See y’all soon!

These days

I love days at home.  You know…those days when no one has anywhere to go and we all just get to hang out together…those are my most favorite days of all! 

And just what do we do on our days at home with no pressures or timelines beating down on us? 

 

We drink coffee or hot cocoa and watch the birds from the kitchen window.

We laugh hysterically at the chickens taking dust baths.  (Truly a very funny thing to see!)

We plant fruit trees!  (Yay!  We’ve put in a peach tree.  Next tree in is an apple…so excited to be growing fruit.)

We stomp and tromp in our {stylish} muck boots.

We decorate the chicken coop for Christmas.

We bring Mommy some dead flowers.  {smile} 

And then we scatter the seeds from the dead flowers so that we can enjoy the living ones in the spring and summer.

We drink more coffee as we sit in the glow of the tree and begin dreaming of our spring and summer gardens.

And because all days are not spent at home…especially this time of the year…we might also be found

singing about our Savior and His love for us.

 

Some days at home and some days out & about

I love both kinds of days especially since I get to spend them with my crew.

I love these days.

 

 

Our Christmas traditions ~ trimming the tree

Years ago when David and I had our first child, I remember my Dad encouraging us to start our own holiday traditions.  We have taken his advice and have worked to incorporate traditions that we brought with us from our families as well as some new traditions over the years. 

 This past weekend we decorated our tree.  Actually, the kids decorated it…entirely…and by themselves.  David and I just handed out ornaments and reminded them that breakables needed to go towards the top. {smile}  And even though the tree is a little different that I may have decorated, I think it may be my favorite decorated tree ever.

Some of our Christmas tree decorating traditions are…

Tradition number one:  Each child gets a new special ornament each year. 

The ornament is usually something that is special to the child.  The plan is that the children will take their ornaments to their new homes when they are adults.

 for our cowboy

 for our car lover

 for our animal lover

 for our girly girl

 for our dinosaur lover

Tradition number two: We make new ornaments every year.

I love monograms so this year we went with these very easy but very cute monogram ornaments.  The glass ornaments can be found at craft stores (and  are usually 1/2 off).  Fill them with a little shredded paper of your choice of color.  (Also at the craft stores) 

Tie on a few ribbons of your choice.  Stick on a scrapbooking sticker for the letter of your choice and you’ve got a very easy and super cute ornament! 

Tradition number three:  We have gumbo, hot cocoa, and make a special dessert on Christmas tree decorating night. 

Tradition number four:  We listen to Christmas music while we decorate our tree.  (Some how we mixed in a little 80s music this year too.  It was so much fun to see everyone dancing around while decorating the tree.)

Tradition number five:  We add one new family ornament each year.  According to tradition number one, we will be giving away our ornaments when the kids are older.   Since that may result in a very bare tree one day, we are adding a new family ornament each year too.  This year we added

a monogram ornament

and

a coffee pot!

 

These are our very simple Christmas tree decorating traditions.  The kids love to decorate the tree.  David and I simply love to watch them as they talk about the ornaments, remember Christmases past, and think on the approaching season. 

December Days ~

I found a few more pictures from December that I just had to share because they are so cute.  {smile}

~ A cup of cocoa and a little after nap bed head ~

~ Baby Boy’s outfit choice of the day:  a puppy dog sweater, khaki shorts, and black boots.  And his three favorite things:  his giraffe riding toy, Toy Story 3, and a plastic zebra.  Can you see the zebra?~

~ Dancing around the Christmas tree ~

(There’s a little white polar bear somewhere in this room playing a very loud rendition of Dancing around the Christmas tree.  He’s now packed away in his quiet little box until next year.  Did I mention that he was loud?)

 

~We read many books from our Christmas book basket.  Here Sunshine Girl is “reading” The Cajun Gingerbread Boy.  It is one of our favorite books of all time. ~

~ If you read the book, you must use your best Cajun French voice.  You’d think that it would be easy for me since my Mom and Grandfather are Cajun French.  (Though neither of them has ever used a Cajun accent that I know of!)  But no!  My Cajun voice sounds like a Cajun with a serious southern drawl.  Every once in a while it even sounded a little…British!  Oh well, my kiddos loved it and it’s really fun to say words like “M’sieur Crocodrie”. ~

~This is what happens when the Mom is sick.  She doesn’t even realize people have snagged the camera!  (See the unsuspecting, totally out of it Mom in lower left hand corner.  I didn’t have a clue until I put these pictures on the computer that he had my camera!) ~

~Mommy’s little helper~

~ More dancing around the Christmas tree.  I’m so glad that little bear is packed away.  Oh wait, did I all ready say that?  {smile} ~

I believe that wraps up our Christmas memories.  I hope your Christmas was filled with many wonderful memories too!

 

 

A quiet Christmas and thinking about the new year ~

The Christmas tree at my Mom and Dad’s house

Christmas Eve found us traveling down to my Mom and Dad’s house for a family celebration.  The day didn’t quite go the way we anticipated since so many of us were still under the weather.  Once we got there, we found out that my Grandma and Uncle Red were also sick and not able to come.  It was a small gathering but we still  had fun. 

(And I don’t know about where you live but there is a cold virus spreading like crazy down here.  So many people are sick with this stuff right now.  It makes me ready for the spring. {smile})

One thing I remember of Christmases from my teenager years was that my Dad always tried to trick me as to what was in my presents.  You see, I could often pick up a box, shake it, and guess the contents.  I mean, how hard is it to guess “clothes” or “gift card” which were my typical requests.  So my Dad would wrap my gifts but include bricks or tools.  Sometimes he would wrap a lot of boxes and the last little box would hold my actual present.  He and I had fun with the Christmas presents!

This year, he decided to shake it up a bit for my kids.  The older kids were receiving a joint gift.  You can imagine their surprise when they unwrapped the box and found that they had a memory foam mattress pad for the four of them!  (Of course, there was not actually a mattress pad in the box.)

And then as they opened the box, they found some pillows!  I wish I had pictures of their faces!

But then they dug to the bottom of the box to find their new gift which was something they have been wanting for a long time.  It made me laugh to see my kiddos go through what I went through as a kid.  My Dad loves to make everyone smile. 

At the end of the day, we headed home and played with their new gift.  Everyone climbed into bed and awoke early the next morning to open their gifts. 

Now, you might have noticed that I don’t have many pictures posted here.  (Which is very odd for my blog posts.)  I was feeling really badly during Christmas and I hardly snapped one shot.  I only had 25 pictures on my camera of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  And about half of them were taken by one of the kids who got the camera.  (See, I told you I was feeling badly!)

However, I did get this shot from Christmas morning.  I figured that I’d better take one or I’d regret it.  This is after the presents were opened and I’d all ready started to pick up.  Otherwise, it would have been a lot messier!

And that is our very quiet Christmas!

Now, if you’re still hanging with me after that boring post…

Every new year, I like to set new goals to keep me focused over the new year.  I’ve been thinking on these over these past few days and I hope to be sharing more with you soon.  I’m also planning a little garden talk too.  So on that note, I’ll see you all soon.  Have a blessed day!

The specialness of Christmas ~

I love to plan things big.  Now I realize that this sentence makes very little sense but I’m just trying to say that I want my children to have big and elaborate memories.  And that usually takes big and elaborate planning. 

Christmas is one such time that I want to be filled with those memories…extraordinary memories that my children will carry with them all through their lives.  I always plan to make these favorite cookies and those favorite candies.  Oh, and I want to sew this favorite gift and buy those favorite stocking stuffers.

I want the best for my kids as I’m sure that many other parents in this world do.  But do you know what happens to me every Christmas season?

Stress

and then

illness.

Every year I say that I want to keep it simple.  And I really do.  Somehow though I get caught up in trying to make it bigger and better.  The stress heaps on top of more stress until…

I am forced to slow down.  Today, I’m writing this blog post with candy left to be made that might not get made and cookies yet to be baked.  There are sewing projects waiting to be sewn.  My body is broken right now as it fights a cold with a cough that robs me of any sleep.  My body and my soul tell me to slow down.  These little special things that I want to do are good things but they are not what makes this season special. 

 Momo and all the great-grandkids

This season is special because my Father God became man and stepped down onto this earth.  He came in such a humble, simple way to live a holy and pure life.  He did this so that He could die a death that I deserved and he paid the wages for sins that I could not pay.  Three days later, He rose victoriously over death.  He gave His life and He did it all…

for me

and

for you.

 

Today I am reminded that I need to slow down and savor the special love of my Savior.  And I’m reminded I need to share this love with my family and friends.  Yes, I’ll do some sharing through cookies, candy, and gifts.  But most of this love will be shown in a simple hug, a simple listening ear, or a simple smile.

And to you my blog friends,

Merry Christmas!