A Little Catching Up...

Every Saturday, Justin wakes up before dawn and goes to his office to accept a new challenge in his game. He leaves me to sleep for as long as I want. This morning was no different, accept for my hand resting on my growing baby bump. I looked at the empty spot beside me and had the most wonderful thought. Soon our Saturday mornings won't be so quiet and that baby bump won't be there below me, but instead beside me. I could picture the prettiest little face, head bobbing as it turned tiredly, one cheek marked red from where the sheet was wrinkled beneath, and their curls shining in the sunlight coming from their daddy's window. Okay, so it may be a year from now at least before Justin is up for playing again, or perhaps I should say that the baby may be willing to let him sleep so he can get up to play. I know it was a daydream. I also know that I won't likely be sleeping so late anymore myself, but I know that it wasn't that far off. This baby has already begun to change a great deal for us.

For nearly a year, Justin and I prayed for this little one together. I (always Mrs. Optimistic) worried he or she may never come. Justin has been a great support- never flinching, never showing doubt, always somehow wonderfully certain. Even the morning that we found out I can remember my choking on tears and surprise while he sat with unwavering certainty in the bed waiting. "I already knew." was the first thing he said (much better than the "I told you so." he could have offered me). When "morning" sickness hit the following morning in full force, Justin didn't flinch. He managed everything without one complaint or one joke at my expense. *On a side note- Morning sickness is a joke in itself in this house. From Dec. 17th until last Tuesday, there has only been 24/7 ALL DAY sickness- the kind like I can't remember before. It kicked me on my butt and laughed at me I'm pretty sure.* Back to my sweetheart though, Justin has been a trooper. He's treaded on our cold, hard floors to the kitchen in the dark for breakfast first thing every morning, made sure we were stocked up on anything I thought sounded good, and even used those smoothie skills I've been hearing about for two years to make me some supposed "Nausea-Free" smoothie pops. *Note to self- you can not believe everything you read on Pinterest.* He has marched through the freezing cold weather with me to our first two doctor's appointments. He has also seen his wife for the giant baby I warned him about- the one that hates doctors and thinks Advil should cure everything. He only laughed at me when he was eavesdropping on my nervous laughing and pathetic "joking" with the lab nurse, even though I did explain to him I was a devil child to too many of them when I was little and know now I should really attempt to stay on their good side. He has even attempted the art of keeping a dreadful patient occupied in the waiting room so I won't look so miserable, and he only smiles when he fails. In his defense though, no one, not even my parents, have ever truly succeeded in making me a better participant in the waiting room. I say all of this for two reasons:

#1. So that in a few months, while worrying over the big nothings that will come and go with delivery, I may reread this and remember how perfect and wonderful my partner in all of this has been all along.

#2. So that our baby will know how wonderful and loving their daddy is.

I have so much more to catch up on and say, but we are losing time and there is a nursery to be cleaned out. With morning sickness out of the way (I just can't say that without a smile), I should be a much better blogger for a while I hope.

I hope all of you have been doing well. I have a lot of catching up to do with you as well, I know!

   

We Couldn't Decide, So...

 

Christmas Season 2014 So Far...

Sorry, I have fallen so far behind in blogging, y'all. I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas season so far. I know ours has already kept us busy, but that is just part of its charm, right?

As promised, here are some more Christmas pictures from our home, and a little of what we have been up to around here!

This our living room...

Yes, the stockings have already been filled. As my mother noted, we truly work off of an honor system in this house.

In the kitchen, I went for a 50s theme. A little white tinsel garland and some red and blue balls matched my new Hobby Lobby décor with my already red kitchen.

Last Sunday, we decided on a whim to make our annual Natchitoches Christmas Lights trip! I grew up with this road trip (more than once a year when I was younger, actually). To share this with Justin is amazing.

Yesterday, after a short visit with my family and some fun with Christmas pictures, we made our annual trip to Marshall, Texas for Christmas lights. It was a little too crowded to get ALL of the pictures we wanted, but we did get a few and Justin got to see the skating rink.(Note: The latter is NOT a common site down here in the south.)

Oh, and before I forget, we managed to finish our Christmas pictures a few weeks ago! I love sending Christmas cards. I grew up watching my mother, filled with pride, plan and make our Christmas cards every year. She never forgot anyone, never gave up even as time went on and we received fewer and fewer. Now I not only watch her, but I get to enjoy making and sending our own.

Sweet husband was very patient this year, dressing in his uncomfortable dress shoes and running back and forth from the camera across the room. Still, this was his reaction when I finally said we were through. Have to love him!

Anyway, this is just a short update of our Christmas season thus far. What have you and your loved ones been up to? Baked any Christmas goodies yet?

Candy Cane Christmas Decorations 2014

We have been crazy elves in our home for at least the last month. My only excuse for the early decorations is that Christmas is happy whether the decorations are hung before or after Thanksgiving. The lights, the garlands, the elves (my favorite obviously) have just been too cute to keep hidden for another month.
I don't know about you, but in spite of my efforts to look something like this with my Christmas duties...

I always end up feeling like this....

Always reaching for the ummmm...cider? Until I can pull it together and look more like...

I'm cool. I'm calm. I'm collected. Haha! So not all the time, but I do only drink apple cider in this house. I mean, we all know the strongest stuff is hot chocolate anyway (homemade with Hershey's Cocoa Mix, yum!).
Joking aside, I don't like rushing to hang my decorations, and make Christmas cards, and wrap presents, and make Christmas crafts. I want all of that to be fun. With everything already out, I can take my time with our cards and work on projects when I want, and bake cookies around all of my decorations and music. Christmas time just seems more exciting and relaxing when the decorations are already in place. As for Thanksgiving, I like seeing the trees out for two holidays especially now that I don't get to enjoy my parents decorations every day like I did when I was home. This year is especially exciting, too. It will be our first Christmas in our house- our new home!

We have multiple trees, so I thought I might spread the Christmas cheer out a bit. With our very large dining room, I could not wait to set out all of my dishes this year. I noticed most of them are candy cane themed, so I talked Justin into buying a third tree for the house and decorating the room in candy canes!

Totally not posed! just fell out of the box like this. :)

We sort of bought the table with the house. The last owners left it behind, so we brought it in from the shop outside and put our other table in the back room for the holidays. I had already preplanned the decorating a bit, and because I didn't want to buy new chairs just for two months, I found these cheap red party chair covers on Amazon. I covered our regular chairs and voilà- Christmas dining room table and chairs!

Sorry for the blurriness! This is the best picture I have from the 1st night.

My elf collection on top of Justin's desk! This is some of my antique picture collection at the bottom!

My desk area- Christmas Style!

We have outlets in the dining room that for one reason or another were placed half way up the wall. It is great for ironing, but terrible for Christmas decorating. I had already planned on putting this tree in the corner of this room, so the best solution was to place Justin's mystery gift (nice & tall to keep him guessing) in front of the outlet while the tree is kept in place! Of course, it only bothers him more not to know what is in the package since he has to unplug the lights every night. Bwahahahaha!

At night time!

At night, we turn on all of the Christmas lights in the house and open the dining room curtains. Since we don't go in there at night anyway, we don't lose any privacy. I plug in the tree to let just a little bit of our inside decorations add to the outside lights!

How about you? Have you started decorating your home yet?

The Great Santa Claus Debate

Sweet friends, our weather is finally feeling amazing! I am struggling to find my sweaters and long sleeves each morning and I LOVE IT!!!! In the past month, we have celebrated our 1st Anniversary, spent a full day shopping with my brother and sister, and, yes, decorated our home (both inside and out) for Christmas. Sorry, I just could not wait any longer. I love Christmas. Don't know where I get it from *clearing throat* (Mommy, maybe?).

I don't know about you, but I feel like Justin and I are still making our own place in Christmas traditions. There are so many that I brought from my family last year. They work well for Justin and I and I love being able to share some of my favorite Christmas traditions with my husband now. That said, there are some traditions that can not take place just yet that we have been considering a lot lately- one example is Santa Clause.

Now I don't know about you, but I grew up with Santa Claus at Christmas time. Even after finding out about his "true identity", it was a fun tradition in the house. (Oh, the pleasures of having little brothers and sisters!) Ever since then though, I have heard a hundred arguments revolving around him.

No, we don't have children yet, but Justin and I both seem to find our time now the perfect time to decide. Personally, we like the idea of Santa Claus for our future family. I would be lying to say it isn't partly fueled by some sentimentality for a favorite childhood memory ourselves.

For Justin- "Yay! Because it was a lot of fun when I was a kid, and I want it to be a lot of fun for our 

                     kids too."

Okay, so I didn't try to kill Santa...just screamed bloody-murder until my parents "saved" me.

For me- I agree completely. While I probably gave more than one mall Santa reason to down an advil bottle for a few years in a row, I loved setting out cookies and the Santa glass of coke and making reindeer food to throw in the yard on Christmas Eve night. I even liked keeping the secret a secret for my parents with my brother and sister. He was one more happy part to Christmas time.

We weren't stingy with the cokes when Santa came on Christmas Eve!

Maybe that is it for me- Santa was a part of Christmas time. As for Justin and I, we want him to be a part of Christmas time for our family too one day.

I know one of the greatest complaints I hear revolves around the horror stories of parents who told their children the truth and suddenly distrust clouded their senses and they didn't know what or if to trust even their parents ever again. Maybe that does happen with some children, and while I have theories, I have to be honest- this never happened with me. When my parents told me, I was disappointed, but only in the fun disappearing a bit. Truth be told, I was still excited for Christmas and I was still excited to watch my sister be excited. I never doubted that I could trust my parents and I learned to take pleasure in the excitement of others.

Overall, I look back and think it was an incredibly sweet gesture on my parents part to give us that excitement for all of those years. The budget was tight back then and yet they still gave us those memories. They let a cheerful (though fictitious) character take the credit for a mountain of gifts and a stocking full of little favorites when they themselves were the "elves" slaving through night after an already late evening of family dinners and gift openings at home. Our Santa worked long hours at a power plant to come home and work in his freezing, cramped work shop in the backyard more than one year in a row. Our Mrs. Claus managed dinners, holiday flus, extended family drama, baths, and household affairs on a daily basis only to spend Christmas Eve in a mixture of Barbie boxes and paint acrylics on hope chest and doll houses. Nevertheless, we woke at 3 on Christmas mornings to quietly scan over Santa's delivery in the darkness, sneak back to our beds, and "wake" again at 6 with parents who were full of smiles and hugs and taking pictures like nobody's business. We were dressed quickly in matching outfits, loaded into the car, and visiting relatives for much of the day and they never showed frustration. My very realistic parents could have taken Santa and the elves as a moment to explain the unrealistic possibilities of time, travel, and supply and demand, but they didn't. They kept their lips sealed tight and adorned themselves in what can only be described as the perfect mixture of Christmas spirit and love. Isn't that what it is all about though.

Christmas isn't and, in my opinion, has never been a time built on the realities of the time. It isn't the time of the year when you all sit around and discuss the failings of Hollywood, the continuous downward spiral of literacy in our education systems, and the ups and downs of economics. It is supposed to be a time to remember and celebrate hope. Hope didn't come at the beginning of the world, when all was perfect and Eve had yet to listen to a certain serpent. It came when all seemed lost. It came when so many felt lost and hopeless. God gave us His Son at a time when all hope must have seemed lost; when no one expected it, and yet their hearts must have cried for it. Sound familiar? To me it does. No matter where we look these days, someone always seems willing to fill us with fear and to cover whatever happiness we have with doubt and sadness. I am not saying we should ever avoid reality, but at Christmas, if at no other time, it seems to me that everything changes. You don't just accept reality with all of its painful truths, but instead work harder to find and encourage the hope and the love that still remains in this life.

I don't know about you, but here the weight of the summer air vanishes and I can breath again. The lights may not shine on every home, but whenever you find them, can you not help but smile in the randomness of their appearances. No tree is the same, no home decorated alike, no Christmas meal exact. Bells ring at storefronts with children tugging at their parents sleeve to let them put something inside much like they do with fountains throughout the rest of the year. Secret Santas are not in short supply, because secret gifts are given and kindness extended among strangers.

But I digress...

Santa does not bother me because for me he is a mere part of Christmas. He was a real person, one who was known to have extended secret gifts to those in need. Since when do we not recognize people, both past and present, for the admirable examples that they leave behind. The mystery of Santa Claus may only last a few short years in childhood, but the excitement remains long after. For most of history children have grown up with the myth, then the truth, only to follow suit and gift their children with the same memories. No matter the world's affairs or the countries, not even the economy's ups and downs, has ever seemed to cease the excitement of Santa. If nothing else, Santa Claus is a prime example of someone who gives without expecting anything in return.

This is just my opinion. Time seems to have forced me to seriously consider just why it is he doesn't bother me at Christmas, and why exactly we want him to be a part of Christmas in our family one day. If I've been to wordy, I might suggest you read the famous editorial "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" from The Sun which has been read for more than a century now. If you would rather, search for "Yes, Virginia". It is the cutest 30 minute movie on the article. Netflix is even carrying it at the moment. Either way, the editor's response is priceless even in today's age.

How about you? What do you think about the Santa tradition? Do you have any memories of him from your childhood?