Christmas is coming

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2 Comments

This has been a spectacular week! Not a lot of house stuff but a whole lot of fun and some good R & R! Last weekend we had our first snow and it was magical. The girls played in it all day, lots of Christmas crafting and baking, we went to a Christmas tree festival, and visited an artisanal holiday bazaar with lots of local food and handmade goodies. We finished decorating the tree and did a lot of chilling out with the seasonal colds settling in a bit too. Note: House pics at the bottom finally!

Playing in the snow
Baking cookies

img_7260

On Wednesday we had a very special surprise, our niece Madelyn was born! She is our daughter’s first first cousin and they’re over the moon for another girl in the family! We all can not wait to meet her, hold her, and smell that new baby smell.

Also on Wednesday we had another reason it was a special day! We went wedding dress shopping with one of my two sisters. One dress shop helped us determine more of the look she was going for, then we stopped for lunch, and then went to the second dress shop. With tears in my eyes she tried on the most beautiful, perfect, gorgeous dress! It was such a spectacular moment and so special that the girls and I got to share it with her. (no pictures not to ruin essence of surprise)

img_7202With Shaun traveling this week we had a special sleepover with my other sister. We shared a special dinner I slaved over, watched Polar Express, and snuggled a lot. Good times!

So many wonderful memories, specialness, and holiday goodness happening right now it’s making me all warm and toasty inside. As the season approaches, I want to share one idea my family does every Christmas morning. It is called the First Gift of Christmas and the link brings you to the full article for more details. Before anything else happens in our family on Christmas morning, we take time to do this and it makes us stop, reflect, and really remember the reason for the season.

I took some pictures of our house…the parts that are photo ready. Note that there isn’t anything on the walls on purpose. I don’t like to commit to hanging things until we are 100% sure and it takes a loooong time for us to do so. But I’m totally digging just enjoying our new paint colors on the walls also.

Kitchen
Family room
My fav new pieces we’ve bought for the house

 

One Day To Just…

img_6938

Thankful on Thanksgiving!

Let me preface this post acknowledging that I live a very American-Dream like life. But…yup here’s the but…I would just like one day to just sit and be. You feeling me moms out there? Sitting, drinking copious amounts of coffee, snuggling my girls and dog under the blankets, reading a little, taking a too long hot shower and just being. We’ve been purging, packing, in limbo with the closing, living out of boxes, moving, reflooring, painting everrrrrything, still semi-living out of boxes, attempting unpacking, and it’s never ever ever ever ending.

Today is Thanksgiving and today of all days I shouldn’t be whining like a toddler. I am beyond thankful this year for my incredible family, my new, lovely home and what is to come in the year ahead! This weekend I will continue to enjoy our home by finishing painting the girls closets so we can unpack their boxes. Shaun will install all the new moldings so we can then put the furniture where it should be. We will unload the bins and bins of RV stuff that are in the garage and should be in the basement. And on and on and on…

We are so blessed to be able to move into our home and be able to make all of these changes but it’s a bit more overwhelming and time consuming than I ever dreamed. Shaun’s grandmother said to me today that moving is exhausting and would be if you moved just across the street. Truer words couldn’t be spoken!

Along with trying to assemble a life in our home, the girls and I are homeschooling all morning long. Normally they’d go to school and I would power through getting stuff done around the house and errands but it’s a group effort to do those things now which is delayed by about 3 hours of learning/teaching. Thankfully the girls have expressed how much they are loving homeschooling, phew! The only thing that they miss is seeing their friends every day. I get it, because I’m missing my day-to-day life a bit too. It’s an adjustment and a short life phase. Next September they’ll go back to public school and we’ll be right back into the life we had this past September and those before it. I’m sure when that happens we’ll all miss homeschooling lol. Double edged swords we so often carry.

I know that once our house is settled and we get into more of a rhythm of our new day-to-day we’ll acclimate. With the holidays coming, my absolute favorite time of year, we have a lot of fun to look forward to. Our annual Christmas party, a few shows my mom and I are surprising the girls with, a Santa lunch, opportunities to help others, Christmas service, Christmas music and more. In our new home, it’ll be a magical time most definitely.