Christmas Time

Hello Everyone!  It is that time of the year when we prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ our Savior!  It's usually very easy to get into the spirit of Christmas, but there are always distractions that keep us from the true meaning of the Advent season.  This year, despite my mother being very ill, I had to remember that Christ is even more important and even more meaningful than ever.  We must still celebrate this most awesome gift of his birth.

My mother is currently in the hospital with a very advanced stage of cancer.  It is terminal.  She is currently in Virginia and hoping to be stable enough to get to Florida to receive alternative treatment for her cancer.  It's been a long month for her trying to overcome the current hurdles in front of her.  She has remained strong, peaceful and faithful throughout.  I've visited my mom, spent Thanksgiving break with her and have visited this past weekend.  My father and sister have been by her side day and night for the past month.  Please keep my mom in your prayers.  Thank you.

While at home, I am keeping busy with my five kids.  Their joy through this advent season is so comforting.  I turned on the Christmas music and let the joy and laughter flow throughout the house.  We started with the Christmas tree.  We all went to Home Depot and bought a tree.  Unfortunately, this year we chose a really icky one, however once it was decorated it wasn't so bad.  The tree was picked totally randomly and the needles pretty much hit the floor as soon as my kids were done with the tree!

I had the guy at Home Depot trim off some branches while he was cutting off the bottom of the trunk and as soon as that first branch hit the ground, I knew it was a mistake.  I had him stop and our tree is sort of lop sided.  We faced that part against the wall.

The kids were really excited about decorating.  I usually like to be involved and in the middle of it all, but there seems to be so many other things to get done, I let them go to it all by themselves.  I watched all the kids find the ornaments that they made in school or the ones that were given to them the year of their birth or the ones with their baby pictures on them.  Ornaments are so cool and I will try to pay more attention to them in the years to come.

After a while they sort of teetered out with the gobs of ornaments to put on.  That was fine with me. 

I had ornaments that were so dated - standard ornaments that I bought when I was a single lady.  They were breakable, so I had to replace them with ornaments that do not shatter.  I bought these - I love Target.  After the kids were alseep, I spent time on the tree spreading the ornaments out more evenly around our bald tree.  White lights - they make everything better.

The next thing the kids love to do are gingerbread houses.  This year we did a house but we also did a train since we like those in our family!  I wonder if Disney thought of making gingerbread Cars characters?  We would buy them for sure.

Who actually eats these things after they are made?  I know they are edible, but once they've been out on display for a few days and have collected dust, who wants to eat that?  Yuck.  This particular kit has been in my closet for a year.  We never got to it last year.  The icing was really hard, but after massaging it for a few minutes, it was good to go.  I told them they couldn't attempt to eat this one.  However, the candy still seemed to be fine. 

I think the boys were only interested in helping to sneak in some candy in their mouths when they could.  We also made a house - they can eat that one if they want.

It has been a while since I've posted.  My little boy, Eddie, celebrated his fourth birthday in November before Thanksgiving!  He has done so much growing up this past year.  Not only physically, but in his speech as well.  I don't remember if I've mentioned that Eddie has Oral Apraxia or not.  It's a neurological condition where his brain cannot communicate to his facial muscles to produce words, but through speech therapy he can get help.  This time last year, he had very few words, but this year he is now speaking three word sentences.  He's come a long way and I'm so proud of him.  He still has a way to go, but he's on his way!

I am still way behind where I'd like to be in my Christmas shopping, but that is ok.  If I don't get back here before Christmas, I pray all of you have the most blessed, Merry Christmas ever!