What a way to start the week, this was the first year in a while that Paul and I have actually got to enjoy the sounds of our wonderful adult choir at Christmas time!! We are usually gone that weekend, boy have we been missing out. It was wonderful and I am so glad we were in town this year for it. It really put me into the true spirit of Christmas and I finally relaxed about not having everything done by now. I was a bit stressed that since I was at home now that I should be ahead of my usual holiday schedule but alas, I was not. None of that matters now that I am more focused on the reason for the season.
The beginning of the week was pretty slow and calm, except for my kids. It seems that this week they have hit the LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS button on their little bodies and I have lost the remote! I am really hoping its just due to the excitement of the holidays. They have not been bad, though Ally did find the Santa gifts, wrapped of course so I had to re wrap them in new paper, but they have just been loud, even little Ian. I don't see it going away anytime soon because this week they have their Happy Birthday Jesus party at AWANA, an extra choir practice, Audrey is spending the night with my parents, a trip for a family Christmas in Jonesboro, and their Christmas play. Then the following week bring a trip to Branson and Springfield and Christmas! Their excitement level has mommy's energy level on low and my only way to maintain enough fuel to keep up with them is by drinking coffee! I think I may be a little addicted to it now! I do find myself enjoying the moments with them and remembering be a little kid at Christmas myself once : ) In fact its one of the many reasons I love being a mom, getting to see things through the eyes of my children!
Remembering my childhood Christmases and the best and not so good parts are the reasons behind our traditions. For example, we used to go to my Nana and Pawpaw's every year on Christmas almost 3 hours away and I was always so sad to leave my new toys because one I couldn't play with them while I was gone and two I was only allowed to take a few of them to show my grandparents. I love my grandparents dearly and enjoyed being with my cousin but I don't want my kids having feeling of "dread" on Christmas so Paul and I have a rule that Christmas Day is spent at our house and if we have to travel, it will be done on another day. Now, this year with Christmas being on a Sunday we will worship the Lord's birth in church and then back home.
Some other things we do are the kids get a new pair of coordinating Christmas PJ's to wear on Christmas Eve, which is something I always wanted to do as a kid but we just didn't for whatever reason and they take a picture in front of the tree. We open our stockings first, which is something carried over by my parents. Santa gifts are wrapped in special Santa paper and name tags!! Though with Ally's little stunt this week, I wish we didn't but whats done is done! Every year the kids get a new photo ornament that holds a current picture so that every year we can see how much the kids have grown and changed from one Christmas to the next. I do not do a "pretty" tree like some do, I do a family tree. It has ornaments from Paul and mine's childhood. Each Christmas my Nana always gave us an ornament, then when I met Paul he would get one, and now she gets my kids one. All of those, except for the ones my mom has kept go up, as well as ornaments that the girls and now Ian have made. I think our tree is beautiful!! I would love to have an all color schemed, ribbon cascaded tree but its not homey to me and it just doesn't add to that element of the kids helping to decorate the tree. At our house we lay cookies and milk out for Santa and marshmallows and water out for the reindeer. As kids Paul and I both did the cookies and milk thing but when Audrey was about 2 she was in love with Rudolph and the reindeer and wanted them to have something and all I could find were marshmallows, so a new VanEvera Christmas tradition was born.
We do not forget to honor the true meaning of Christmas. We attend a Christmas Eve service at my parents church and we also make Jesus a birthday cake that we eat with our Christmas meal as dessert. This year Ally has asked that we make Aunt Helen's Carrot Cake for Jesus! We also teach our girls to give to others so through the year we collect change and when the Salvation Army bells come out, the girls always have some change to put in. They also do Operation Christmas Child, and various other community projects.
On Friday I finally gave in and took Ian to the doctor. He had a cough and a runny nose for about a week but no fever or acting sick but I took him anyway especially since we would be going out of town this weekend and next week for a few days.I found out that he needs an inhaler due to some wheezing but not antibiotics! They told me he has had plenty of them with all of his past ear infections prior to the tubes so they didn't really want to give him one unless he REALLY needed it.
Audrey left that afternoon to go spend the night with my parents, as a treat for being good. The rest of us went out for dinner and did a little shopping. It's been a long time since Paul and I took two kids out and it felt very strange.
Audrey left that afternoon to go spend the night with my parents, as a treat for being good. The rest of us went out for dinner and did a little shopping. It's been a long time since Paul and I took two kids out and it felt very strange.
Saturday we loaded up the kids and head to Jonesboro to have Christmas with Paul's dad and two of his sisters. We couldn't make it out to California with everyone else but managed to get to visit some of the family and the girls and Ian got to play with a few of their cousins, which is always fun.
Well next week comes with lots of excitement as I get to blog about the girls Christmas play, gingerbread house, and a trip to Missouri!
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