Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve was spent with Nana, Poppol, Aunt Emily, Great-Nan, and Great-Papaw. We ate, played fun games, opened gifts, took tons of photos, and had so much fun!

Christmas morning came dark and early...Nicholas went to bed at 8:30 on Christmas Eve. He was up at 10:30, 12:30, 2:00, and 4:00 a.m. Finally at 4, he told his daddy he just could not lie in bed one minute longer. So he sat in his room, building the Lego set he received from his grandparents. At 6:00 Steve woke me and said "honey, he just can't wait one minute longer." Nicholas was passed out on the couch around 8:00 tonight.
Who can sleep when Santa is on his way?

In all things, give thanks

Today, I’ve been reading a blog that was a link from Kelly’s Korner. She was asking people to please pray for this woman that lost her husband to cancer one month ago and just lost her father-in-law today. I don’t know why I clicked on the link. Usually, I just offer up a prayer and don’t read along. I get too emotionally invested; I am missing the ability to separate myself from others and their hurts.

I read the most recent post, then the second, and then I stopped and went back to her very first post so I could read the story in order. Wow. The blog actually began with her as a newlywed, not as the wife of a man with cancer. You should see it…they talk about house hunting and jobs and the joy of being married. It is full of accounts of shopping, dinner, exercise, school things…All those things that we do every day and don’t really appreciate. A few months in, her husband receives his diagnosis and from that point, her journey is all about him and this battle they are fighting.

It breaks my heart.

It also makes me want to run out and hug my sons. It makes me want to say “thank you, God” for their loud, healthy voices and their rowdy energy. Thank you, God, for my husband that loves me and is here with me to forget to take out the trash or to move my papers around to where I can’t find a single thing.” It also makes me wonder why on earth I get annoyed with these things?

I say a lot that I am blessed. This is something that I realize almost every single day. I do feel things very deeply, good and bad. My heart does feel a ridiculous amount of empathy for others. Regularly, I cry when I read the blogs of other people – if they have a baby, tears of joy, if they are saying good-bye to a foster child, tears of sadness…It could be almost anything. Steve and I kid that I am turning into my great-grandma, a woman that was a definite crier.

Oh well…there are worse things I could be. Like ungrateful or unrecognizing of my blessings. So, my reminder lesson for myself today is to remember this: Every single day is a gift. In all things, give thanks.

Hilarious

Luke's favorite word right now is "hilarious".

I find this hilarious. He says it with emphasis on the "lar" part of the word so he sounds like a fifteen year old girl. I think I was friends with a girl that said it in exactly the same way.
What five year old speaks like that?

Hilarious.

Sofie

I have someone I’d like you to meet. Say hello to Sofie.

She weighs 2 lbs., is only 8 weeks old, and is a mix of Chihuahua and Dachsund. She is called a “Chiweenie”. We just call her sweet, sweet, sweet…

She is my Christmas gift from my husband that loves me sooo much!

This is his answer to my arms yearning for another baby.

He tells me that in five years she will still want to be held.

Luke tells me she’s just like a baby “but she doesn’t barf”.

Nicholas tells me that he is still my baby. “I haven’t left for college yet you know!”

I am so blessed. Have I mentioned that?

My Day in Numbers

sleepy puppy on my lap {one}
boys full of energy {two}
dozen cookies baked {four}
people's dinners prepared {ten}
hours spent in my classroom {two}
different recipes I prepared {five}
hours spent shopping - yuck! {one}
loads of laundry to fold {five}
sugar cookies decorated to look like snowmen {fourteen}
cookies eaten by me {only one!}
cookies eaten by the boys {three}
servings of "healthy food" foisted onto the boys to counteract the cookies {four}
rounds of dishes washed {three}
Christmas gifts still to make {two}
times the boys cleaned the living room, then messed it up again {six}
fun friends to go out with tonight {two}
best friend I miss {one}
man I will love forever {one}
kisses I received {countless}
times I felt blessed beyond words {hundreds}

5 on Friday

I am always thankful for these two!

Five things I am thankful for this Friday:

1. The boys are home until January 3rd! YAY!!! One of the biggest perks of their school is that they get out for Christmas a full five days before Cabarrus County Schools. I am so excited to have them with me!
2. The promise of the holidays around the corner. The house smells like sugar cookies and cinnamon, the gifts are wrapped, the tree is trimmed and all that is left is to enjoy.
3. I have a job that lets me play with children all morning, be home whenever my boys are, and have enough time to run errands/nap/clean house/read/etc. all before they come home.
4. Our church family - you could never meet a better group of praying, loving Christians. I am so grateful and love them all so much.
5. Nicholas' upcoming piano recital. He is in his first recital ever on Monday night and he is so excited, but so am I! I can't play anything and I am so proud of my smart, brave, funny son that can do so many wonderful things. (Luke is actually waiting on Ms. Laura to have an open spot so he can start lessons too. This time next year, I may have 2 boys having a recital!)

Just for fun...

You know you are from NC when:

• You've never met ANY celebrities
• You measure distance in minutes
• Your folks have taken trips to the mountains to look at leaves
• You remember watching the ACC Tournament on television at school
• The local newspaper covers state, national, and international headlines in one page, but sports require six pages
• Your school classes were canceled because of cold
• You know the Carolina League is the greatest baseball league in the country
• You think South Carolina was dead weight well shed
• You've ever had to switch from "Heat" to "A/C" in the same day
• You see people wearing bib overalls at funerals
• You know Krispy Kreme makes the best doughnuts!
• When asked how your trip to any foreign, exotic place was you say, "It was different"
• Schools and churches hold barbecue fundraisers with banana puddin' as the dessert
• You have actually uttered the phrase "It's too hot to go to the pool"
• You faithfully drink Pepsi or Mt. Dew everyday of your life.

Must Be Santa

Last night we took the boys to Great Wolf Lodge to see Santa. That is where the real Santa hangs out this time of year you know.

Nicholas just walked right up to Santa and presented him with a request. "I would like Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle please. If they are all given away, I would like a bike for my second choice. I have been a good boy this year." No nonsense, right down to business. He smiled for the picture and climbed down to accept his gift of a stuffed bear with a candy cane.

Luke was a little more hesitant. Luke is my watcher. He likes to take it all in, process it, and then make a decision. He was standing by me, not quite sure if he really wanted to go talk to the big guy when suddenly we heard "Luke, come and sit with me. I know you've been a good boy this year, come tell me what you want for Christmas."

What?!? Did Santa just call Luke over by name? Why, yes he did!

Luke needed no more invitation than that. He was spellbound. He went over to Santa, sat on his lap, and opened the sealed envelope holding the letter he had written him. The letter that was so important, it could only be opened for Santa and it had to be hand-delivered! There was no one waiting in front of us or behind us. Luke got to sit on Santa's lap, read his letter, and visit with Santa as long as he wanted. Finally, after a nice long chat, Luke was done. He accepted his stuffed snowman with candy cane and politely requested his donut from Dunkin' Donuts. (Red glaze with lots of holiday sprinkles. Chocolate covered Boston creme for Nicholas.)

We took all the pictures we wanted and opted not to stay for story time this year. They were full of joy and donuts so we came home to go to bed on this cold yucky day.

Every day is a gift and some gifts are extra magical. Visiting Santa this year was like that.