Christmas and New Years

I sat down to blog and journal tonight and realized I haven't written a thing about Christmas or New Years or really much of anything we did the whole month of December. It turned into a social media rollback sort of a month for me as I was busy with other things. I looked at Facebook, but not regularly. I posted occasionally but not a lot because I was doing other things. I found myself realizing hours later that I didn't have my phone anywhere near me. Truly it was delightful. I have to figure out the right balance because I do like keeping up with the goings on of my friends and family on Facebook, but not feeling tied to devices was a remarkably freeing experience and I really enjoyed it. I read not one but four thick books this month. I created. I played with my kids. It was lovely.

But anyway, Christmas. New Years. Christmas Break. This year was great. I've mentioned it before of late but I'm really feeling a simplify kick. We're coming to the end of grad school. May is the goal. And then August so we can start the kids at their new school. Then next Christmas so we can participate in that graduation ceremony. Basically Bill is hard at work writing his dissertation as well as prepping to teach and doing a multitude of other things. He will finish when he finishes and it is very hard to know how long it will take. But we see the finish line and he's working as hard as he can to get there.

Chloe at six months

How that relates to Christmas is I didn't feel a strong drive to give a jillion things and add to our stuff list. We went with new nightstands and lights for the kids as well as a Lego table and stools and some new Legos. They got a few miscellaneous clothes and games and things from grandparents and cousins. All in all it felt just about perfect. Lots to open, but not too much. The kids were so excited. This is really the first year they've truly gotten the magic of Christmas time. They were excited to see Santa. They loved the parties and the advent calendars. We did our annual 25 Days of Christ thing with scriptures and movies about the Savior. They remembered that from last year and really enjoyed it. They were so incredibly excited for Christmas Eve and to wake up Christmas morning. Bill and I had a delightful time creating all the magic. It was awesome.

Christmas morning the three older ones got up and Chloe actually slept way in. We opened most of our gifts before she woke up and we brought her in. She's even old enough to be excited by the others' excitement and that was fun. Truly, this was the best Christmas we've had since having kids. It really was magical.

By the time New Years rolled around I was honestly beat. Chloe has slept through the night since day one, but just the last few weeks she seems to have forgotten how. Her crib is in my bedroom because there's nowhere else to put it if we want to preserve some of the good things that work right now with our other kids. So I can't really do anything but get her and take care of her multiple times a night and I'm dragging. We watched a lot of movies and shows throughout the day. We had promised the kids they could stay up until midnight but in actuality I was dreading it. It went well though. We watched the Clemson game, which was super fun. The kids watched the Jungle Book. When both wound down we found a New Years countdown on demand on Netflix and danced around until "midnight." It ended up being about 10:30PM. Then the older two went to sleep. Aaron was his crazy self until about 11PM and Chloe was up and down all night because hey, why not! I can't say it was the best New Years I've had, but for a first time even celebrating it with our kids, not bad. It can't help but get better when we get our effort on and do more fun things, lol.

So anyway, now Christmas Break is winding down. Genevieve started back today. Spencer goes back Wednesday. I kind of feel like shouting "I survived!" and doing a few fist pumps. I'm still figuring out this whole vacation, all four kids are at home thing. We'll get there. It's all good. This holiday season is in the books and onward and upward to an awesome 2017.