Magic Moments

December 26 might just be the most depressing day of the year. Will and Ami had to leave. Tom went back to work and so did my dad. All the fun anticipation and Christmas hoop-la is over. The boys and I are still at the cabin and this morning my mom and I woke up to the post Christmas mess. Even the Christmas treats looked unappealing and got thrown in the trash. :( After I sulked for part of the morning we did indeed get the cabin cleaned and all the new toys sort of organized and the laundry started. After naps the boys and I all got haircuts. Then we took advantage of this nice winter day and went outside! I do love our homeschool curriculum. Every Friday there is time scheduled in to be outside and enjoy God's creation. However, the person who wrote our curriculum must not have accounted for cold Minnesota Winters. A couple weeks ago Aiden and I were supposed to go outside and measure the length of Noah's Ark. Since we've been living in an ice box, we hadn't done thi...

Christmas Day was a beautiful day! It was warm enough to be outside, the boys had lots of time to play, and we made our annual gingerbread houses. Even the boys have to make a gingerbread house. They're usually pretty good sports. No one caught anything and I don't think anyone really planned on catching anything. But, it's always fun to set up the ice fishing hut and drill the hole. I heard that drilling the hole through 17 inches of ice took some time.

 We celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve at our house. Christmas day is for sleeping in (if you don't have kids) eating lots of treats, playing with your new toys, and enjoying the best day of the year for the best reason ever. Christmas Eve begins with the hanging of the stockings and setting out cookies for Santa. Then we go to church. Our house is one of Santa's first stops so he comes while we are at church. The boys were so excited this year and it was so. so. FUN!   Tradition holds that Santa brings one gift and you're pretty much guaranteed to get the gift you ask for. I didn't really grow up believing in Santa, but Tom's family is a Santa family so we have adopted the tradition. The story of St. Nicholas is a beautiful story and we read the story each year. The boys believe in the magic of Santa and his generosity beautifully illustrates that as exciting as it is to get a gift that you really want from Santa, Santa brings the gift to show you how muc...

Everything we did today was overshadowed by the fact that tomorrow we celebrate Christmas. In our family we open presents on Christmas Eve night. In Tom's family we open presents on Christmas morning. I'm partial to Christmas Eve night, but they both are fun in their own way. So, today involved lots of bordeom because all we could think about was opening presents which made today crawl by. It took some creativity to entertain a little five year old boy who only had presents on his brain. ;) Marme made a stellar hot cocoa bar and the boys indulged themselves in hot cocoa with added extra chocolate, mint, marshmallows, whipped cream, and even chocolate spoons. They were in heaven. :) I spent some time on a new picture editor and I don't have the knack of it yet which is why this looks kind of silly. But it's all in the name of fun!

Last night, after a very busy day, we took the boys to a live nativity that a church in our neighborhood hosted. It was simple, but was a great portrayal of the birth of Christ for the boys to experience first hand. And of course, the stable animals where a big hit.   Today we are at the cabin and it's been an advent free for all because after spending yesterday packing, cleaning (sort of), making treats that Tom needed, ironing, spending forever at the post office, making dinner, folding 400 loads of laundry, going to the grocery store, going to the nativity, and driving up to the cabin I'm beat. ;) We made a quick trip into town today so Aiden could buy a Christmas present for his Daddy (and I think he somehow has a gift under the tree for me too;)). After that Aiden busied himself wrapping his presents. He watched the movie Santa Buddies and he and Sage sampled Marme's Christmas Cookies. Right before bed we ended the day with a Christmas Dance party. ...

Even though I haven't been since before Aiden was born, the O'Shaugnessy hosts a beautiful performance of the Classic Nutcracker Ballet every year. This year was no different. The costumes, the dancing, the music....it was all beautiful. Aiden saw the Nutcracker last year and loved it so he was excited to see it again and even remembered parts of the story. I was a tad nervous about taking Sage to a two hour ballet, but he did splendidly and loved it too. He has been talking about the pretty dancers, the dragon, the camel, and the snow ever since we got home. He was even really sad when the Nutcracker was broken. I think this is a performance the boys and I will enjoy every year. This year we were lucky enough to bring our friends Steph and Dieter. Whatever will we do when January arrives? After all of these festive events we are going to be bored!

Tom, it's been 10 years! 10 years!!! It's hard to believe. It's also hard to believe that we've been married with kids the same amount of time we were married without kids.  These last 10 years have had joys, sorrows, highs, lows, and everything in between. I'd do every single day over again with you and my prayer is we have decades and decades left to spend together here on earth watching our kids, grandkids, and great grandkids grow up. I bet the best is yet to come.  At this important milestone I should probably have something prophetic to say, but I don't. The song running through my head all day has been "So Young" by the Corrs. I'm pretty sure this is the perfect song to sum up our early, carefree, married days back in college when we really were so young. I love you, Tom...FOREVER!