What A Christmas!

This Christmas season has been all-around weird for us. We didn't get a tree, which actually was kind of nice because there were no needles or watering to be concerned with (and, yes, I know that if we would convert to a fake tree we wouldn't have those problems anyways...but the conversion will not be happening in this household.) I remembered the night before we left that we were supposed to be celebrating Christmas between the 3 of us. When I went to wrap Noah's gifts I couldn't find my wrapping paper or tape! Tim searched high and low in the scary storage area (at least he said he did) and came up with nothing. I am confused about my tape because I just had it a couple weeks ago. Oh, well. I ended up wrapping Noah's gifts in newspaper and stapled it all together. It sounds pathetic but quite honestly, he didn't even care. Just ripped the paper off to see what it covered. We didn't read as many of our Christmas books this year, the house didn't seem as decorated, and we started off playing lots of Christmas music and then just became lazy about it. I was also mildly disappointed that we didn't sing more Christmas songs at church throughout the month, especially when the ones they did sing were just the opener songs and no one really participates in those because you don't know if you should or not.Noah's present from us this year was a camping tent. He loved it and couldn't wait to bring his stuffed animals inside as well.
So I wasn't sure how Christmas would even feel this year when it came to celebrating with family. It turned out to be great! We left on a Friday evening, and after a quick stop to meet Samuel Brewer, the newest addition to our friends', Chris and Rachel's, family, we were off to Fowlerville. We celebrated with my family on Saturday and Noah received more gifts than we have room for! He and Tim are playing with his new GeoTrax train set right now. He loves it. We had a fun time visiting with my parents and sister and her family. Since we were tight on finances this year, I had to get creative with Christmas presents. Tim and I had a small amount we set to buy stocking stuffers for each other so we would have something to exchange. Just about everything else I made or enlisted the help of friends (i.e. my friend Jeana is going to take family photos for my parents and my sister's family. Christina is going to do a family photo during Labor Day for the Ross side.) I found some fun fabric I had bought a while ago and made Kailyn a doll blanket for her cradle (she has a doll cradle that was my sister's when she was young, but this Christmas she was finally receiving her first doll.) I also made her a little pillow to go along with it that I forgot to take a picture of, and an art smock with a fun little pocket on the front that was from the book "Bend the Rules Sewing," which I highly recommend.

These shoes were also made out of fabric I had in my stash and were given to Sam. Rachel, being a crafter as well, recognized the pattern (we frequent many of the same craft blogs) and it makes it all the more fun when you can discuss the process that goes into it. I could become addicted to making these shoes...which could be a good thing since we know lots of people having babies!

Noah received his first bike from Grandpa and Grandma. Since the ground is covered in snow here, he has been riding it around the kitchen and living room on what little hardwood he can find.

After waking early and having breakfast on Sunday, we were off for Tennessee! There is not much to tell about our travel except that Noah handled 12 hours in the van better than I did. By the time we got to Knoxville and I realized it would be close to another 2 hours (not the 1 hour Tim claimed it was) I started losing it, thrashing and tearing at my seatbelt and screaming out the open window like a banshee. Well, maybe it wasn't that dramatic but I was close to tears.

The week was great. Noah had 4 full days of interacting with his 5 other cousins ranging in age from 1 month to 7 years. Tim and I learned how to play a couple new games (Charoodles and something else that is part Pictionary, part something else and I cannot remember the name of it for the life of me now.) We had a great time visiting with family and playing with our niece and nephews and enjoyed some yummy food as well - the Ross family knows how to pull off a heck of a buffet spread that we snack on from morning until evening: cheese and crackers, shrimp and cocktail sauce, desserts, nuts, etc. Delicious!

This is the best I could get for the "cousins pictures" - and the newest addition, Ross, is not even in it! In the back are Cameron and Owen and the front is Alec, Noah and Wyndham.

Then Alec was missing from the next one we tried to get, although Ross made his appearance. The people in here are Owen, me, Wyndham, Joyce (my mother-in-law), Noah, Deidra, Cameron, Kristen and Ross (oh, and Ross' last name is not Ross since it is Tim's sister so don't be confused.)

My birthday is the day after Christmas and every year I am excited for it and in recent years I have felt depressed when it comes to the actual day. I think that even as I get older I expect it to hold all the excitement that it does when you're turning 10. Then I realize that it doesn't. Something changes when you become an adult - especially when you don't celebrate it with just your family anymore so you lose traditions along the way. I know it sounds very selfish of me; I had a recent conversation with a girlfriend whose birthday is on the 23rd and she was telling me about how let down she feels on her birthday. I was able to completely relate and was glad to not be alone in how I felt. I guess we Christmas babies tend to wallow in our self-pity when we're lost in the bustle of Christmas. Honestly, though, I got some great presents. My nephew, Cameron, made me a bracelet and my mother-in-law bought me two Karen Kingsbury books. Unfortunately, I had read both of them but said I wouldn't mind having them to keep since I had just borrowed the ones I read from the library. She decided to keep them for herself and give me money to buy some I have not read, which was a sweet thought. Tim bought me the new Sara Groves CD, "Tell Me What You Know," a Karen Kingsbury book that I absorbed myself in and finished in two days ("Between Sundays"), and a 40-day devotional book by Beth Moore called "Get Out of That Pit" which I have heard great things about the book that she wrote of the same title. I thought that gift was ironic since I felt in a pit on my birthday. I am actually quite excited to start it because in this pregnancy I have felt some sort of mild...depression, maybe?...that could be due to life events or who knows?

Something fun we were able to do on my birthday was visit Doe River Gorge, a Christian camp that our brother-in-law, David, works at and that all our family loves and supports. Tim was a counselor there while we were in college and we always make sure to visit to see what is new whenever we are down there. This day's visit started with a stop to say "hello" to the horses.

I was able to have some great conversations with my sister-in-law, Kristen, regarding parenting more than one child. I actually broke down to her one night and confessed I was scared to death to have another child and sometimes feel like I don't know what I was thinking in wanting to have another when sometimes I wonder how I'm going to make it through the day with just one. I told her that I have of course heard of post-partum depression, but is it possible to have prenatal depression? She assured me that everything I was feeling was normal and shared her personal experiences and wisdom, as well as the fact that the "terrible twos" don't last forever. I wish we didn't live 14 hours apart because sometimes I just need a dose of her and one of her hugs.

All in all, it was a fabulous Christmas - although it is good to be back in my own bed.