To be honest, this whole Christmas season has just been a little off. We didn't host Thanksgiving this year, and I found myself home alone for a few hours during the week before Thanksgiving, so I decorated for Christmas a little earlier than usual. I just did the decorations inside and a tree downstairs. I had also shopped early, so I was feeling so accomplished. Then Thanksgiving came and went..... and so did all of our time. Mike traveled for the next two weeks including a weekend. He also dressed as the jolly old fellow several times. The kids and I went to breakfast with Santa, the Christmas parade, cut greenery and decorated outside, and attended Rowe's preschool program. Brennan and I enjoyed a few fun activities for his class. He and Mike went on a field trip to Elf University, and Rowe and I went on a trip to Santa's village with her preschool. I spent a part of two weekends in bed with migraines, and both kids had hand foot and mouth disease. We tried to make the most of all that we did, but it was rarely all four of us and it just never felt right. We finally managed to get our live tree in a spur of the moment trip to a new (to us) tree farm on the 18th. As soon as the scent of that tree filled the house and the soft lights filled the living room, I started to feel much better. It helped that we had a rare seasonally cold day too. Within a few minutes of thinking how great it was to finally feel the Christmas spirit, I was cleaning up the pieces of a precious hand print ornament off the floor. Then before that was done I was digging tiny nails and pieces of our nativity out of the puppy's mouth. Skipping Christmas definitely came to mind! Thanks to Brennan's precious teacher, the ornament was replaced. Thanks to Santa, the nativity was repaired. Thanks to Jesus, Christmas means so much more than all of that.
This week we've enjoyed time together to prepare, rest, and celebrate our Savior. We didn't make it to all the fun events we normally do, but we did find time for what is most important. On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed the beautiful warm day with time playing outside. Then we went to the candlelight service at church. Today we awoke early, enjoyed Santa toys and presents, had breakfast, and then mostly enjoyed a relaxing day (aside from almost catching the house on fire but more on that later). The flooding rain did keep us home, and concerned for friends that were greatly affected. We were able to celebrate with Mike's family, but decided to postpone my family's festivities until tomorrow. Hopefully it will be another relaxing day together.
Breakfast with Santa
Rowe's Christmas Program
The Christmas Tree Hunt
Christmas Eve
Christmas Morning
One child was a little more ready than the other
Her favorite gift so far I think
He's just gone around saying this is the best Christmas ever all day!
Time for your checkup! Time for your checkup!
This "little" beauty is seven months old. She is becoming such a sweetie, with a little of a mind of her own. She fits right in with the Swafford ladies ;). Her favorite present was a new Kong moose. She loves soft toys, and I love that these hold up pretty well.
*Note to self: When you wonder why this blog is so rarely caught up these days, remember what happened as you wrote this one tonight. Aside from how many times you needed to fill a milk cup or referee an argument or stop a little miss from destroying the Lego train that it took ALL day to build, you also had an emergency clean up. Rowe walked close and you asked if she had another stinky diaper. Her answer, "I think so and I put my hand in there." Sure enough, she did! Yes you love to record family memories, but sometimes they are just made too fast to keep up with!
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