A Very Merry Christmas

Sickness struck our house in the last couple of weeks so this is an incredibly late post about Christmas.... but hey, our neighbors still have their Christmas lights on, so surely just writing about how it went must be acceptable. Right?

Our Christmas season started early like most years-- not just because I always get our decorations out and up BEFORE Thanksgiving, but because the boys began rehearsal and studying and singing Christmas carols for the Christmas play before Thanksgiving as well.  Leeland has participated in the play the last two years, but this is the first time that Hayden has been old enough to participate.  The last two years, Leeland has requested to be a "a star" and this year was no different despite my trying to get him to try something different.  So we had TWO literal and figurative stars in the Christmas play this year.

The cutest stars I ever did see!?  

We also had the great pleasure of getting to see SANTA which was a lot of fun this year because there were no tears and the boys are finally understanding what the Santa thing is all about.

I'm not going to lie, the rest of the season is somewhat of a blur.... Over the years, it has become increasingly difficult to balance the family traditions that we grew up with and beginning our new traditions as our own family.  I could write an entire post about boundaries around the holidays, but I'm trying not to chase those rabbit trails.

Thankfully Daniel was off work this year!!  This is the first time since he began his career with the police department that he has been OFF work for Christmas.  He didn't go into work until the night of the 26th, so it was really lovely to have him home.  Also we had my Mother in law in town for a few days staying with us over Christmas for the first time this Holiday since she moved away last Summer.  

The boys were incredibly excited to find that Santa completely spoiled them with legos Christmas morning! All the Legos that their hearts could possibly desire, and even better, an awesome organization Lego table to keep Mommy and Daddy sane.

Most of our Christmas morning pictures are two little bouncing blurs, so there aren't many that I can post that you would even know what it was a picture of.  You can see the Lego table in the background of many of these, and Hayden rolling is Lego fire truck on the tabletop of it-- it's an Ikea Trofast table with large grey Lego baseboards adhered to the top of it.  The bins started out incredibly organized by set... and now almost a month after Christmas, they are just full of pieces with no organization rhyme or reason.  But such is life with little ones with little pieces.... AND at the end of the day, at least they are not on the floor?  

So a fairly low key Christmas for us-- in the last couple of years, I've done my best to simplify things in an effort to focus on what truly matters about the season.  Jesus and family.  That's what it's all about folks, and the rest doesn't really matter!