This week was a doozy. While no actual harm, or lasting damage, was done, it was emotionally taxing. It stretched Michael & mine’s parenting skills and our faith.
Portrait by Ted
The adults had colds. Michael lost his wallet. Ted was experimenting with unsafe choices. The house was a mess. Everything felt overwhelming.
Needless to say, we were ready to reset over the weekend. This weekend we’re celebrating Michael’s birthday, unplugging, and getting the house in order. Some quality time as a family will build relationships and a clean house will give us a good start for next week.
Built a Teddy tower
Not every day/week/month is Pinterest perfect, and that’s okay. It is important to acknowledge the difficult times, while doing what we can to turn it around.
The holidays are upon us, and I don’t think anyone is mad about it. The last few years have been tough & there is something special about the holiday season that makes it all feel better.
One of my favorite ways to celebrate the holidays is with traditions! (If you haven’t seen Olaf’s Frozen Adventure on Disney+, you need to!) Traditions are a fantastic way to bring the family together, no matter what you celebrate. Some of my favorite holiday traditions are making sugar cookies & decorating them with LOTS of icing, what is in our stockings, and watching White Christmas!
Courtney has perfected the sugar cookie recipe and I’m adding it to our list of MUST DO’s for future years!
For both Michael & I, stockings were one of our favorite Christmas traditions growing up. We each received different things that meant a lot to us, so in our married life we’ve combined them to create Super Stockings! In our Super Stockings we receive: toothbrush & toothpaste, oranges, peanuts, a novelty toy, and candy. This is one tradition that I am most looking forward to sharing with our boys as they grow!
All that’s missing on the mantle are the stockings.
I think that Christmas movies are a must for anyone who celebrates Christmas! They are a fun way to stay warm, and spend quality time with the family. One of our favorites is White Christmas. Having lived in Vermont, this year it was a bit of a nod to the state that has been our home for 3.5 years. I am also a huge fan of the stop-motion collection; Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Year Without A Santa Claus, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. But Michael doesn’t like them as much, so I play them when he’s not around. 😉
This year is the first one where Ted has an idea of what ‘Christmas’ means, so we have been discussing what other traditions we want to include. So far our list includes: – salt dough ornaments – family activity advent calendar – gingerbread house – brown paper packages. (🎶 tied up with string 🎶) – spend Christmas Eve under the Christmas tree – build a train around the tree – sugar cookies – Christmas movies
I’d love to here your favorite family traditions! Share them with me here, on Facebook, or Instagram.
Living in Plaid 