Sick For Christmas

We tried to be jolly.  We tried to follow our traditions.  But there was no way around it, we were sick for Christmas.  Kevin had the stomach flu of death on Christmas Eve and Kylea and I caught a different cold on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  

We read The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve.  We read the story of Christ's birth from Luke on Christmas morning.  We made tea roll (which no one ate) but we were really not very much into the Christmas celebrating this year.

Despite this, it was still nice to have us all together.  Enjoy this little video of our Christmas.  

And photos too :)

Truth be told,  Mama wasn't really feeling up to making cookies.  Santa wrote a note saying he had been to Iran and Hawaii before our house and he left us a pineapple and some pomegranates.

new frame looks pretty!

It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

Christmas always has and always will be my most favorite holiday.  As a child I was the one on my mother's case, "can we decorate for Christmas now?"  When the answer was yes I would dive into the boxes of trinkets and ornaments cheerfully chirping Christmas songs as I transformed our home into a Christmas wonderland.  My freshman year of college one of my roommates had to BAN me from Christmas music until AT LEAST after Thanksgiving.

Though my vigor for the holiday has never diminished somewhere along the line Christmas joy turned to Christmas hum drum.  The snow falls, trees are lit, carols are sung and the birth of Christ is celebrated the same way year after year.  Yet somewhere in my heart was missing something......the magic.

I began to fear that the loss of youth meant the loss of Christmas joy.  Until I found a very real and unexpected cure for the "bah humbug" creeping up within me..... a baby!  The very second Thanksgiving was over I was on Christmas hyper drive, every lullaby I sang was Christmasy.  I decorated our home and had little talks with Kylea about another special little baby born around this time of year named Jesus.  Kevin had to reign me back on a few things like cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  "She has no idea that you're even doing that" he kept reasoning.   I found reason has little to do with the unimaginable joy I found in creating holiday magic for our little family this year. Sure, she's too young to appreciate most of what I did, but now the precedent for tradition has been set.  We've established a hybridization of our traditions to create our own holiday tradition that I think will be perfect for us.

We visited Santa on Christmas Eve day.

Kylea LOVED Santa she smiled a laughed all the way home.

such a sweet little face.....how could Santa deny this little angel?

Made a homemade pizza and watched "A Christmas Story" later that night.

Christmas morning started bright and early for us, the only one not bleary eyed was little Kylea.  I suspect it will be this way for many Christmases to come.

At least right at first.  Most of the day she spent recuperating from her early morning.

We all agreed that before presents we would feed our growling stomachs.  So Kevin set to work making tea roll (a delicious Hart family tradition).

Santa brought us LOTS of toys and presents as well as some exotic fruit from his previous destination (a tradition from my family)

a bumbo so Kylea can sit up all by herself!

Santa brings good doggies a treat

Tekoa says I LOVE Christmas!!!!!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and playing with presents.

GO DUCKS!

Christmas magic has been restored and I can't WAIT for next year!!!

Twas the night before Christmas

(the beeper says pizza is ready)

We spent this Christmas just the two of us, well three including the pup and how can we leave him out, he's family. Ok, we spent Christmas just the three of us. It was a fun and relaxing time, it's been fun blending our families traditions to create our own hybrid Christmas tradition that we can follow and enjoy for the rest of our years together. On the night before Christmas Kevin's family always made a homemade pizza. Due to our small family size and my overall cooking laziness this sounded like a fantastic option over the more traditional ham feast that I always had growing up.

Christmas morning came and we woke up bright and early to see what Santa had brought. We agreed that next year we will read the story of Christ's birth like I did when I was a kid. It's a good way to remember what the season is truly all about. We opened our presents.

Tekoa wondered, "Does Santa visit dogs too?"

It looks like he sure does. We recieved many wonderful presents from family and from each other.

After all the gift giving it was time to feed our growling stomachs. Kevin made tea roll which he traditionally ate Chrismas morning. I have to say I had never heard of tearoll before but I'm sure glad that I have now. It's delicious!

After tearoll came playing with toys and naps.

then off to the great and freezing outdoors to walk the dog. We bundle up. Let Tekoa run off his oodles of husky energy.

At the close of the year I'm left to contemplate the past year. I can honestly say I'm grateful for the birth of my Savior, for the opportunity to celebrate and for all my blessings especially my family. All that's left to say is Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.