We Made it Once Again

It's over for another year.

We made it.

I am breathing a sigh of relief. Christmas day came and went as it always does (whether you're prepared or not). Ironically, this year I was both prepared and not prepared. I actually shopped throughout November, and I don't mean to brag or anything, but was mostly done by December 1st. (It was an incredible feeling, I do highly recommend it, and will do my best to do that every year). We were free to enjoy the kids Christmas performances. We were able to enjoy outings. We were able to enjoy the advent calendar... (**Note to self, next year, don't make the advent calendar more work than it needs to be, throw in a few more things like "hug someone you love today" Or "Get an extra cookie for lunch today") The kids still love to open it each morning, and I don't have to be fretting about what's going to happen. I'd have to say, we followed through with about half the things that we were supposed to do.

A few of the most popular were [Pop some corn and watch a movie together as a family]; [Camp out under the Christmas tree tonight] - too bad that one ended quite violently with a certain 4 1/2 year old FREAKING OUT... [Eat dinner by candlelight] - to celebrate winter solstice. [Make Christmas flavored milkshakes after supper] - which ended up being the flavor vanilla, but they were indeed dandy. [Watch the Polar Express] - first time I'd seen this movie, it was fantastic even though we did need to keep retrieving Madelyn from the steps because she was scared. [Have a drive and check out Christmas Lights and displays] - Mason saw a house in our neighborhood that the lights were set up to music. You drove up, tuned into the radio station and the lights went on and off to music... It was awesome.

Those were some of the favs, that I racked my brain to come up with over 24 days. Hindsight is 20/20. I know for next year. A few "smarties" and a few "take care of each others" can certainly fill in the void.

What I was unprepared for was the oven incident, but even that worked out in the end. I just have to do some baking now, to keep Gigi equipped in the treats she's become accustomed to. ;-)

Here is a look at some of the things we've been up to the last month.

Isn't the montage AWESOME? You can find out how to make one for yourself here. This is called a Mosaic. Love it!