Christmas Blur...
This year leading up to Christmas felt rushed... super busy and some days down right exhausting. This year we failed miserably on Christmas decorations...
With the rearranging of the TV in the front room there was a lack of where to put the Christmas tree which didn't mess with Stewart's optimal movie/gaming experience. With the doggies out and about about regularly in the other room the thought of the tree in there with some of our most precious ornaments didn't set well in my mind.
As the days drifted into early December I decided to put up the small guest bedroom tree in the living room and fill it with previous years of Christmas photos... I got two photos re-sized and printed to fit in the ornament photo frames before Mid December took over! While cleaning up the kitchen/dining area I was constantly picking up and moving Ainsley's "must have 3 boxes of flavored candy canes for the season". And decided to make the tree less Charlie Brownish and put all the candy canes on the tree... it was really more of a convenient factor for the kiddos while watching a movie to lean over and pluck a candy cane off an eat it!! (this picture taken a couple days ago... just about picked clean.)
This year Ainsley requested some light strands to decorate her room... it was such a big hit that Walker wanted to do the same as well. Kiddos actually wanted to leave them up year round for an extra bit of fun...
It was amazing the difference this year made of not having those couple extra hours to myself in the afternoon like I've had in previous years... if it wasn't for online shopping during my lunch break at school... I would have had to miss a kiddo event to do some shopping and that is always the last thing I want to miss!
I baked and wrapped down to the last possible night this year... had to play catch up on the advent calendar some days... did not do neighbor gifts this year... and we totally didn't do our drive around looking at lights with hot cocoa this year, watch any of our holiday favorite movies or even head to Lava Hot Springs for our annual Pre-Christmas soak... but we did share the holiday together as a family laughing... eating way too many goodies... and really savoring the time together... which to me is the BEST CHRISTMAS gift anyone could ask for... I am truly blessed this year.
