All Things Christmas

 

As I walked into the boys' bedroom the other day, I paused as I took in all that was in front of me, because this pretty much sums up what life has been like lately. 

I mean, it's the holidays, the "most wonderful time of the year" right?! 

Right after Halloween, it all begins. 

I blinked and it was Thanksgiving. 

Which meant it was time to cook a "1/2 a pie a person", a turkey three different ways...and try out my new farmhouse table I received for my 40th birthday. My vision for this table was for this very day: to be able to seat the entire family. 

Mission accomplished! 

Evie made her traditional turkey vegetable platter, which gets more Pinterest worthy every year.   

Thanksgiving commences the hustle of the holiday season. 

I have the tendency to get overwhelmed this time of year; but this year, I wanted to be very intentional to focus on the things that are most important. 

Every year on Thanksgiving night I surprise the kids with Christmas pajamas. 

This year, I surprised them with Golden Retriever Christmas shirts. 

Whenever I start to feel stress rise up inside me, I felt like God has been giving me little reminders to keep in check what is really important. 

Like for example, I saw this as I drove down the street in my mini van one afternoon after school pick up.

A rainbow right over our house!

The kids and I were simply amazed! 

We marveled, and it reminded us to pause and thank God for his goodness to us. 

                                                                        ...And this moment of "a silent night"  reminded me that all kids want is a good dog to lay their tired head on.  

This fall I took each of the kids out to breakfast individually before church, just the two of us. Sitting across from sweet Caleb as he savored his hot cocoa at Shari's made me realize that nothing else is really that important. 

If we can recognize these small little reminders and gifts throughout our day, the view becomes clear of what we are supposed to focus on in life; our heart of "rushing" and "doing" and "stressing" become a heart of gratefulness. 

And as I tell my kids, if we can have a baseline of gratefulness, we are able to more easily love, be patient with each other and live joyful, carefree lives without the burdens.  

So I kept in mind this through the hustle and bustle of the season, remembering that only a year and two years ago how very much I longed for all the Christmas gatherings and festivities I now was so consumed with. 

Christmas songs and dancing have been taking place in our home since October as Evelyn has been practicing her Christmas jazz performance for school. The theme was 1940, so a vintage style dress was requested. Ordering a dress (and crossing my fingers it would fit) from Amazon in plenty of time, I realized that having a Prime membership doesn't really mean express shipping these days. So as the days got closer to the show, so did the delay notices I received from Amazon. 

Evelyn was a part of a special "umbrella" dance, so she really needed to have this dress. 

So, two nights before the big night, she and I did what I dread doing the most: going out  in the dark on a cold rainy night during Christmas season to shop. 

Whenever I am shopping in desperation, it never turns out well, and what we ended up with by the end of the night was a not 1940 vintage dress. Instead we grabbed the only thing we could find: a poofy Christmas dress-the last one---the only thing we could find---way too much money---and not at all what we needed. 

We also couldn't find shoes that fit properly or looked the part. 

So despite Evelyn's disappointed and depressed demeanor, I made her buy black slippers (the ballerina type) because it would look better than her track shoes. 

"I really don't want to wear Grandma's slippers on stage...." she bemoaned. 

Well, what do you know! On the morning of her performance, at the crack of  6am there is a package being tossed in front of my house by Amazon (I didn't know they worked these early hours!)

And as I opened the packaging, my eyes fell on the perfect 1940s vintage dress and shoes. 

And she looked marvelous. 

Sometime when I look at her lately, I just can't believe that this is my little girl. 

She's not so little anymore. 

And the BOYS!

Those boys. 

They ended soccer and went full steam ahead into basketball. 

Triple threat

Once again, the three of them playing together on a team is a bit unfair to any other team. *humble brag* but they truly read each others' minds and just dominate. 

So far this has been another undefeated season. 

I just love being a soccer mom....and a basketball mom...and a boy mom! It's so much fun sitting on the sidelines cheering on my athletic dudes. 

But back to the Christmas season....

Besides Evelyn's school show, the calendar has been full of school parties, parties with dear friends, and concerts. So many concerts! 

Evelyn and Caleb performed a Christmas violin concert at a local coffee shop. It was their first time performing and playing with other people. 

Our church also had a beautiful Christmas concert as well. The lighting and Christmas tree took my breath away. It was a wonderful family night, complete with Cinnabon and egg nog. 

We are a few days away from Christmas and our tree is still holding up. 

Actually this has been one of my favorite trees ever!

We got it the weekend after Thanksgiving. Someone in our neighborhood posted online about a family nearby having a "secret tree farm" with limited trees. 

They were untrimmed, uncut but $25.00. 

$25.00 for a Christmas tree is pretty darn good, so we set out to get one of those trees before they sold out. 

Our perfect tree. It has character!

We decorated it that night with hot cocoa.
Lucy likes to come around and sniff out the hot cocoa (and eat ornaments if we don't watch her)..like the manger ornament she destroyed one afternoon when she was mad at me for being out all day. 

It was Levi's turn to put the star at the top of the tree this year. 

                So YES! 

JOY is the theme for this Christmas season, and so far we have had a lot of it!