Rewind and Remind: Adventures in Decorating the Fidler Church Manse

First, I would like to start by telling you that when we did the Preacher's Wife's Scavenger Hunt one of the ladies overseas referred to their parsonage as the "church manse". Don't you love that? I do. So, we are now officially living in the church manse. Today, I am joining in again at The Preacher's Wife for This Is How We Christmas Thursday. You can still link up there if you would like, but I am winning the drawing this time because it is jewelry from The Vintage Lane and I picked out a necklace I want to give someone weeks ago. So, I'm just sayin'. :) (The truth is that it's a random drawing and the only random drawings I get chosen for are surveys. I'm not kidding. I get randomly picked for every census and survey known to mankind. My opinion is highly valued. :)

Anyway, I wasn't sure if I was going to join in on this particular day because to be honest, I have been struggling with the Christmas decorations. I started out the month feeling pretty under the weather and having no energy for normal life much less the strenuous rigor of decorating. But, I had a moment with my 4 year old that inspired me. You will most definitely not be inspired by any great decorating ideas I have, but God used the curiosity of my preschooler to help me chill out and focus on what this time is about. You see, I so much want to have a Better Homes and Garden house. A home that is perfectly clean, decorated and classy. And it looks like grown ups live there. But alas, it is not meant to be.We have this little problem. We have to live here... *sigh*

This year I was feeling kind of frustrated because I wanted new stuff, fancy stuff, stuff that goes together. All of my Christmas stuff is a mismatch of things that have been given to me. Well, Eli was laying on the couch one day and asked, "What does remind mean?" I thought he meant rewind, because he was waiting on a movie to rewind. He said, "No, what does remind mean?" I told him it is something that helps us remember.



Then, referring to this ornament he said, "That dog reminds me of Abby." Abby was our cocker spaniel that passed away 2 years ago. It was like a light bulb came on in my head. As I had been putting out different decorations they would remind me of certain people or places or events. God began to show me how much love fills my house every Christmas with decorations and ornaments that were chosen especially for me by people who care for me. I needed to rewind and be reminded of that.

This is the first year EVER that I've had a real tree!! I'm so excited I about can't stand it. We had so much fun going to pick it out. I've shared before that we had a seven foot tree I got on clearance before Josh and I were married. Before we had furniture or a place to live. I also shared that it never did fit anywhere we lived. We often had to leave the back of it off or the top. Finally, the year we moved to Mississippi it went up one last time. It actually went up several times because again we could only put half of it up and it was very front heavy. I can't tell you how many times it fell down and we had to put it back up. Then, we got called to Montrose and moved the week before Christmas. We finally just said good-bye to that tree and bought a very petite pre-lit tree that I named Peggy Sue. I noticed in the pics from last year that Peggy Sue was looking pretty pitiful. So, now we have a real tree!


I don't have a pic with the lights, but I have to tell you that my husband and children convinced me to get colored lights. We had colored lights when I was growing up but since we've been married we've always had white. It just feels so peaceful and calming to sit by a lit Christmas tree doesn't it? It used to. Until Josh decided we needed moving lights. Mercy. They were really stressing me out during the decorating phase, but now they are growing on me. You can even put on Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" and they move right on beat with the song. Just thought you should know that. :)


The lights remind me a lot of this little girl who is making Christmas quite the activity this year. Here is Kate with one of her daddy's ornaments. Isn't she cute? Let me tell you though, she moves quicker than those lights! We just decorated Tuesday night and we've already re-decorated 3 or 4 times.



Sarah put the manger at the very top and said it should be up their "because it's Jesus' birthday". Right on babygirl! And how cool is it that her 1 year spiritual birthday is tomorrow!!

These are some ornaments that my friend and church member, Shelly, has made the past three years. I stand in awe y'all. Aren't they amazing? I'm planning one day to just have a "Shelly Tree" full of her ornaments. She assures me that one day when my kids are older I too can do things like this. Ummm, I'm not very hopeful...

This is my homemade ornament. The lighting is terrible. But this is what I can do with some wood glue and a kit from Oriental Trading. :) Speaking of wood glue I feel like I am running an infirmary for broken ornaments. As I write this I have a ballerina healing on my kitchen counter. Decapitation. Horrible. I thought I was gonna lose her. And I love ballerinas. Thank goodness for the wood glue...

And who doesn't love a clown? This is Josh's ornament that his great-grandma "Mo" made him.

This ornament was given to us at my friend Pao Ying's wedding which just happened to be November 27th. Unfortunately, I never get this ornament out in time to remember that. This was the favor from their wedding and I just love it because 1. It reminds me of their anniversary even if I am late and 2. It's neat to feel like they are part of our Christmas every year. And, they do have faces I promise. My camera obviously does not have a Christmas Tree setting on it. (Or more likely, I just don't know what I'm doing...)

This is my absolute favorite ornament. F.A.V.O.R.I.T.E. I have put this ornament on the tree every year of my life that I can remember. It's not Christmas for me until the red ballet shoes are hanging on the tree.

This is another favorite of mine. Again, I was having camera issues. My best friend Karen gave this to me a few Christmases back and do you see the "F" on their songbook? I just love it. I need to find another little snowgirl to add since we have added Kate. Nothing a little wood glue couldn't handle. :)

I had a picture of our mantle on here and it just disappeared. But that is okay because it is still a work in progress. I can't find our stocking y'all. Or mine and Josh's first year of marriage Christmas ornament. I am convinced that I packed them somewhere special so they would not get lost or broken. Now I just have to remember where....

This will be our third Christmas here and this is the first year it has occurred to me to put our stockings on the mantle. It's a mantle from a fireplace that was taken out of the den and when they asked if I wanted to keep the mantle I had them put it in the dining room for all of my pretty decorations. Or, for a bunch of random stuff that gets thrown up there to keep it out of Kate's reach. :) Anyway, I have no idea why I never thought to put our stockings there. I guess I was too busy looking for places to hide things like our very important ornaments...

I really wish I could show you that ornament. It is a very pretty glass ornament. My mama had bought me tons of ornaments and we had a dear family member (this will be the first Christmas since she went to be with the Lord and I am thankful for my tree full of "Liz" ornaments) who got us ornaments every year. So, I had plenty for our tree. And they all came with red yarn to tie them in bows to the tree because that is how we always decorated at mama's. Well, when it came time to hang our new ornament I didn't have any pretty ribbon or hooks to hang it with. Never fear, we had a bread tie. Josh had just started working as a breadman for Sara Lee and that was our life. It was only appropriate that the pretty glass ornament be hung by a bread tie. It still is. :) Or it will be as soon as I find it...:/

If anyone is still reading this, I hope I haven't bored you to tears. Thank you for letting me share a very small part of the decorating here at our church manse. :) I look forward to seeing everyone else's decorations and pray that we will all make the time this season to be reminded of why we celebrate!

I'll have a hot chocolate, a low interest loan and some spray 'n wash, please.

I used to hate when people would say that marriage took work. It just didn't sound romantic at all. Love shouldn't be work. It should be fun and easy and...romantic. Have I mentioned before that I am a hopeless romantic? Despite my hopeless romanticness (one day I will write my own dictionary) I have found that often, I do not feel romantic.

Yesterday while Josh was at school he was sending me messages telling me he loved me and he couldn't wait to see me and he wanted to give me a big smooch. That was sweet and all, but I have to tell you, after a day of homeschooling, driving in the rain to pick up Sarah, cantata practice that consisted of more child chasing than practice, and the wonderful surprise of a dirty pull-up that Diasy had pulled out of the trash awaiting me when I got home, I just wasn't feeling all that romantic. In fact, I was feeling more like I wanted to curl up in the fetal position and mumble for a little while. Poor Josh.

So, this morning I decided I would attempt some good old fashioned romance and surprise Josh at the office with a hot chocolate from Cups, this amazing coffee place my friend Amy introduced me too. Josh and I don't drink coffee, but we can tear up a hot chocolate and a Blondie (my new fave!) Well, this is when I realized what that whole "working" thing is talking about. It is seriously a major event to do things as simple as take a drink to my sweetie at work. First, we had to do school. Then, we had to get everybody ready. Thankfully Sarah and Eli get themselves dressed now. That is good because Kate is at that phase where it is like to trying to dress 8 people. She had to go to the "bafroom", she climbed in the bathtub while I was putting on my make-up, she had to brush her teeth, we had to find socks...you get the picture. We finally got on the road and made the 30 minute drive. (Have I ever mentioned we live at least 30 minutes from ANYTHING?)

I pulled up to the window (yes, they have a drive-thru, praise the Lord!) and the guy informed me that all of their prices had gone up and were not the same as what was listed on the menu outside. I didn't even ask. It didn't matter. I was committed. I had driven through a torrential rain (I love the word torrential) after getting myself and 3 kids dressed. There was no turning back. I was getting Josh that hot chocolate no matter what! I had even put on make-up for pete's sake!! Of course, I couldn't just get Josh the hot chocolate. Are you kidding? My children would be telling that story for years of how we drove millions of miles to get hot chocolate and I didn't let them get any. I could just hear it.

I placed my order and I could tell that the poor guy was not used to getting group orders. Kate got a chocolate milk which she promptly spilled all over her brand new shirt. A girl popped up at the window to tell me my total. $16.35 . Sixteen dollars and thirty five cents. Seriously? Yes, seriously. I started to tell my children that was their lunch. But I didn't. Because I didn't want to mention food or remind them that they require it. So far they haven't remembered. :)

We continued on in the torrential rain storm to Josh's office. We gave him his hot chocolate. He was happy. He said Cups is worth every penny. We smooched. I thought that was worth every penny. :)

Don't Push Me!

I interrupt this marathon of "Emily's Christmas Memories" to bring you an update from "The Ghost of Christmas Present also known as INSANITY!!" This week has just been something else. From what I remember Monday was pretty calm. I even got to the dance studio EARLY to pick up Sarah AND I remembered to pay her tuition. Punctuality and memory are not my strong suits so I feel the need to congratulate myself on those two things. :)

Tuesday night the kids and I accompanied Josh on a tour of some local funeral homes. Eli got so excited and said, "Yay, we're going to a new funeral home!" That is a moment you know you are a preacher's kid. But really, who needs Disneyworld when there are so many funeral homes to visit? One of our church members lost his father and so we decided to brave the cold and the rain and take 3 kids under the age of 7 to the funeral home since I wouldn't be able to attend the service. It went better than expected. I had the chance to have a very serious conversation with my 4 year old. He wanted to know why his body was still there if he was dead. We've talked so much about going to heaven that he didn't get why his body was still here. It may bother some of you that we take our kids to funeral homes or that we discuss such things, but I am a big believer in the fact that we teach our kids how to react to death and grief. With Josh being a preacher and both of us working for Hospice (and, oh yea, we live across the street from the cemetery) our kids have been very exposed to death and funerals. I'm just amazed at the faith they have and the way their little hearts and minds handle things. It blows my mind the questions they ask. I will always cherish that night sitting on the couch at the funeral home with Eli. I hope that he will always feel like he can talk to me and ask questions. (Although I have the feeling that in a few years I will be asking him questions and seeking his wisdom!)

I had been feeling pretty bad for a couple of weeks and so Wednesday when Josh came home early after the funeral I dragged my pitiful self to the After Hours Clinic. It was full. Is it sad when you almost enjoy waiting at the dr.'s office because you actually get time to read through an entire magazine in peace and quiet? Probably. Well, I got a prescription and headed to Laurel to Wal-Mart. Apparently so did everybody else in central Mississippi. I was in line between two people who must have been blogging on their phones the way they were texting. Aren't y'all so glad I can't do that on my phone? Y'all would have been reading a blog that said, "I feel like crud, I'm in line at the pharmacy at Wal-Mart. The end." I prefer to sit down and give you detailed, chapter reviews of my week instead. :)

Thursday was a much anticipated day. Josh and I got a date! Well, it was to a memorial service, but still, we went without kids! Josh works for the same company I used to work for just out of a different office. Every year each office holds a memorial service to honor all of the patients who have passed away. Josh was asked to speak at the service for the office I used to work for. I have to confess, when we pulled into the parking lot I became a nervous wreck! I haven't gone back to the office or seen any of those people in over a year and a half. I am the type that I always assume people have forgotten me. Like, I'll call Josh and say, "Hey, this is Emily. Your wife." Okay, not really, but still I just feel like it is better to assume people have forgotten you than to go running across the building with arms outstretched, you know what I mean? Well, I had no need to fear. The chaplains who invited Josh to speak even said they did it because they knew it was the only way they would get me there. :) It was SO good to see the people I used to work with. It was also very emotional for me. I was only there 2 years, but y'all I can't explain those 2 years. They were so intense and really, I grew up in those 2 years. I figured out more about myself, my faith, and real life than I had in the previous 20 something years of my life. I'll go ahead and forewarn you that I may move from Christmas memories to work memories in the next week or so. What can I say, I've just become a sentimental, remembering fool. :) I also found out that several of those patients listed who had passed away were some of mine. See, I still consider them mine... Josh thought his message that night tied for his worst ever with the first sermon he preached in 6th grade. :) I assured him he was wonderful, and really he was.

We left there and had supper at LaPinata, the BEST Mexican restaurant. We had a real, uninterrupted conversation and cheese dip. That's all I ask for y'all. How did the kids do you ask? Oh, they cried. When we got there and they had to leave! Ha! Nothing like feeling loved and missed....... :)

Yesterday Sarah and I went shopping for some much needed winter wear (and by winter I mean if the temp drops below 74.5 I am breaking out the scarves). She is at an age now where it is fun to shop with her. She still picks out stuff that is the total opposite of what I like, but she is much easier to sway in my direction now. I so wish my computer would let me upload pics so I could show you the picture of her in a hat she picked out. All I can say is, obviously I have taken her to too many funeral homes! It was this huge black hat with feathers. And speaking of feathers, do you remember in this post when I talked about the feathered headdresses? Well, guess who bought a feathered headband yesterday? Oh yes I did. $2.99. I couldn't pass it up. I feel like a fashion icon I tell you. :)

Last night was the Christmas parade. Sarah rode on a float with her dance class. I walked through half of Bay Springs (seriously. For you local folks I walked from Hardees to the City Hall!!!) to find the float. But it's not like I was wearing high heeled boots, because who would do that? Okay so maybe I was. Anyway, we stood in the freezing cold for about 20 minutes, caught some candy, almost got run over by some crazy police officer showing off on his motorcycle, and then it was over. We totally didn't see Sarah at all. She was on the other side from where we standing. I tried to just get a pic of the float and do you know what my camera said? REPLACE BATTERY. It has become a Christmas parade tradition that my camera does that. (I think that Josh may sneak in and put old batteries in so I will stop embarrassing him by taking 40 million pictures, but that is just a theory.)

I guess today was the grande finale of the week. Just so you know, I decided to go for the real tree. Mostly because after looking at all of those pictures of our tree from last year I realized what a sad looking thing it was! I really wanted to go to a fancy tree farm and have that whole experience, but we just went to Lowe's. I'm glad. I don't think my kids were up for experiences today. Eli was having emotional breakdowns about wearing shoes and a coat and he couldn't keep the crayon box from falling out of his lap in the car. I thought we might have to sedate him for the ride. Once we got to Lowe's I really had no idea how to pick out a tree. Finally we saw one that was not all tied up and I said "That one looks good!" I think Josh was amazed I picked one so quick. I'm just too lazy to be picky, I really am. I think we did good though. I'm happy with it. I really don't know if I can ever have a fake tree again. Of course, this is day one. ..

After Lowe's we headed to Wal-Mart to get a tree stand that didn't cost more than the tree. Really, I think that some of the ones they sell must come with a full staff to water the tree everyday. Good grief! Kate did not want to get in the jeep and leave Lowe's. It was the first time she has ever fought me getting in her seat and I started having flashbacks of Sarah being that age because she fought me every.single.time we went anywhere. It was very traumatic. Well, I finally figured out that Kate was so unhappy because she had spotted one of those big swingset playthings they have outside and she wanted to play! I really hope that little battle of the wills was a one time thing. But now I'm not so sure. Once we got to Wal-Mart I started pushing the buggy while Josh looked at lights. Do you know what my 2 year old started saying to me? "DON'T PUSH ME! DON'T PUSH ME!" While it may not have been used in the same context, I am pretty sure she has heard those words from me!

It's been a week of funerals, parades, and Christmas trees. Oh yeah, it snowed here last night! Can you believe that? I'm going to go to bed now because our tree keeps making noise and I just know that at any moment a squirrel is going to jump out at me. If you think I'm joking you just don't understand my experiences with the rodent population. Knowing my luck there is a whole family of squirrels in that tree preparing for the holidays....

A Very Special Baby

*This was originally posted on this day in 2007. Here is what my baby Kate looked like then, and following is the lesson she taught me that Christmas....



Well, it's done. The Christmas decorations are up. I know, I should sound more excited, but I have to tell you, getting them up was not exactly the experience I had in mind. First of all, we moved the week before Christmas last year and apparently I was so sick of packing and unpacking that I just randomly threw my decorations into the laundry room in any crack or crevice they would fit in. This meant digging through those boxes and boxes of random stuff we never unpacked after our move.

Every year I have visions of holiday music playing, cookies baking, and my family dressed in Christmas sweaters as we decorate the tree. Isn't that sweet? Well, in reality Josh was drugged (legally) playing PS2 on the couch, the kids were running around half naked breaking every decoration I've been given in my entire life, supper was burning on the stove and I was in the laundry room screaming as I was attacked by wooden deer falling out of boxes onto my head. It was a special time.

However, before the chaos I had to rearrange the living room to make a place in front of a window for the tree. I had everything situated and then I looked at the place that was supposed to be for the tree. In the rearranging I had moved the bassinette and it was sitting where the tree would go. For some reason that moment struck me. I thought about putting the bassinette together all by myself at 8 months pregnant because I was so excited I just couldn't wait for Josh to come home. I remembered how for a few weeks it sat empty in the living room waiting for Baby Kate. And then, it made me think about this season we are celebrating and how it never really was about Christmas trees, cookies or spending too much money. It's about a baby.

I have to say that there is nothing in the world that compares with the excitement and anticipation of waiting for a baby. Having recently had Kate and finding out that I am an Aunt-to-be (just call me aunty em!) I know that no other event equals the anticipation of wondering what the baby will look like or the eagerness of dressing the baby in all of the clothes that have been waiting for months.

I thought how Mary didn't have any of those preparations done and I wonder if her nesting instinct was driving her crazy as she was stuck on a donkey traveling to another land. Did it bother her that she didn't have the perfect outfit for her baby boy? I doubt it. I'm sure her mind was filled with much more serious questions. How do you raise the Son of God? The messiah who has been anticipated not for 9 months, but since the beginning of time!

I know, only my mind could wander that far from rearranging the living room. But I'm so glad God gave me that moment. I pray that this holiday season as the busyness takes over that He will continue to fill my heart with thoughts of the Baby Jesus who would grow up to be my Savior! I pray that we will all feel an even greater rush of excitement over the baby who the prophet said, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,' which is translated, 'God is with us." (Matthew 1:23) That baby came to be God with us!!! To experience and feel everything that we feel and experience. To enable us to say, "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was at all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:14)

What a very special baby!!!!!!

This Is How We Christmas

You would think it is December or something the way I've been posting these Christmas blogs. :) For someone who is having trouble getting in the holiday spirit this year I have posted a record number of Christmas pictures. I'm hoping that at least my Mom and Dad will still be reading my blog after I bore everyone else to tears with my Christmas memories. Just hang in there for 22 more days....:0)

Today, I am taking part in a fun little blog party Lisa is doing at The Preacher's Wife called This Is How We Christmas: Quirky Traditions. You can link up at her site if you want to join in. You don't even have to be a preacher's wife. It is so neat to learn all of the different traditions and celebrations people have for Christmas. Here is what she wants to know:

1. The Santa Thing- I believed in Santa until I was 16. Okay, not really, but I really wanted to. I LOVED the mystery and the excitement of Santa. My sister Jenny and I would lay in bed for hours waiting for him to come. She would often go looking for her presents early, but I never wanted mine until Christmas day. The surprise was the most exciting part to me.

My kids believe in Santa, but I really struggled with that. Not so much because I thought they would lose focus on the real reason for Christmas, but because they ask so many stinkin' questions!! I really stink at lying to them. And Josh stinks at keeping secrets. He gets excited about stuff we've talked about getting them and just talks about it in front of them! We're trying to get better though. Actually...can you keep a secret?

Josh was Santa. In the year 2000 at Winn-Dixie. You would think he would be better at this whole thing. :) This is the Christmas before we got married. I was away at school and he sent me this picture and I'm sure you can guess what was number one on my Christmas list that year!! So, now you know. Not only am I a preacher's wife, I'm also Mrs. Claus. It's a lot of pressure y'all....

Pictures with Santa are a must for us. Even if they cost more than our water bill. Even if my children are terrified and screaming in the picture. Why? Well, we've just always done it that way. :)
I will never forget the first Christmas that Sarah was old enough to really know what was going on. We wrote a note to Santa and he wrote back! Oh, if you could have seen her face! I'm not sure what was up with this plate from last year. Those cookies look pretty pitiful. I'm sure that is some traumatic baking experience I have blocked from my memory. Anyway, I'm not sure how long we will do the note thing. I think that is what gave it away for me. Santa's handwriting looked just like my dad's!

2.Christmas Eve Day- Lisa shared the best Christmas Eve tradition ever. Breakfast at Cracker Barrel and a day at the movie theater! Oh, that is so going to be one of our traditions as soon as my children can sit through a movie!

Honestly, since Josh and I have gotten married we have had so much change that we don't have many set traditions, especially on Christmas Eve as he had to work that day in the past. I wanted so much to carry on my family's tradition of driving around Christmas Eve looking at everyone's decorations. Bless Josh's heart. Our first Christmas together he had worked like a 14 hour day out delivering bread all over Tallahassee, FL and as soon as he got home I said, "Let's go ride around and look at lights!" I am pretty sure he was sleep driving. Thankfully no wooden deer or inflatable snow globes were injured in the making of that memory.

Coordinating Christmas clothes have always been a big deal in my family as evidenced by this very stylish picture which may cause my sister to never speak to me again. :) I just had to put it on here. Don't you love my Gilda Radner hair? You know, the "Gilda" came before the "Rachel". :) Those stockings hanging behind us were sewn by my Mama and my family has the exact same ones. I attempted to sew Josh's when we got married. My Mama was nice enough to sew one we could actually hang up in public and she has since made one for all 3 of my children and our dog Abby. You can't tell in the picture, but I have the biggest stocking and I still like to point that out every year. :)

My most memorable Christmas Eve EVER happened last year. It feels like it was last week! Anyway, it included pep rally skirts, hannah montana wigs and candlelight. :)
In keeping with the clothing tradition, our longest standing Christmas tradition is Christmas Eve pj's. You can see this one goes way back...........



3. Food and Parties- Our month of December is full of church specials, dance recitals, the downtown parade and the city party we always get invited to so Josh can bless the food.


Unfortunately I do not have much to share as far as food goes. The kids and I always make a birthday cake for Jesus and I buy a gingerbread house kit for them to put together. See this picture on here? Yea, that's not our gingerbread house. In fact, I may go to jail for using this picture. Will you visit me?
Isn't that pretty? We're working up to that. But let's face it, it's hard to make a gingerbread house when most of the candy gets eaten, y'know?

This year I am totally planning to make candy for our neighbors. Y'all hold me to it okay?

One of my favorite things to do with the kids is read a story called "What God Wants for Christmas". It has little boxes with different characters from the Christmas story and as you read along it asks you to open each box at the point that character enters the story. My kids love it.


Well, these are just a few of our memories and traditions. I am hoping to create some new traditions for my family this year and can't wait to read about how everyone else celebrates. Thanks for stopping by! Y'all come back now, ya hear!

All I Want for Christmas is a Few of My Brain Cells Back

On the second day of December this blogger gives to you...more pictures. From 2007. And I seriously wondered why I had no pictures from 2008... Yes, those would be the pictures I showed you yesterday. After figuring out that this will be Christmas 2009 I then went and wished Happy Birthday to someone whose birthday is actually tomorrow. There just hasn't been enough caffeine for this day. Now that I am back on track with what day and year this is let's get on with this post.

It is only appropriate that I would be having memory lapses as I bring you this Christmas blast from the past, because although I have pictures I don't know that I have a single memory from that Christmas. Oh yeah, it just came back to me. We stayed up til 3:00 in the morning putting together a trampoline in freezing weather. And by putting it together I mean putting it together, realizing something was wrong, reputting it together, still not being right, reading the directions, and putting it back together again. In between my trampoline assembly duties I was inside putting Kate's bouncy seat together. And doing it wrong. And taking it apart. And reputting (I just made that word up today) it together again. And reading the directions. And waiting for Josh to finish the trampoline so he could fix what I did. Get the picture? After that marathon night of repeatedly saying "We will never do this again" we then got up, tore through half a million presents, loaded up the kids and headed to Panama City. You don't even want to know the condition I left my house in. Everything after that is a blur. But here are some pictures.I love that in this picture I am laughing hysterically while my child is crying his eyes out. What kind of mother am I ?!?! I also love that Kate is looking at me like, "I hope you can get it together soon!"

Eli was the age then that Kate is now. Where in the world does time go?

Our little Christmas present, Baby Kate.


My Sweet Baby

I got new luggage. I'm pretty sure I was asking Josh, "So, where do you want to run away to?" :)


Eli on his motorcycle, may it rest in pieces. I backed over it just a couple of weeks ago. Oops...


Any event with presents makes Sarah happy!!


This is where you will find the boys


I have no idea how we ever get home from Panama City without leaving a child behind. Well, you don't think we would leave the presents do you?!? :)

I can look back on that Christmas and see it as one we learned a lot from. Like, if you stay up all night Christmas Eve and then your kids (or your husband) wake you up at the crack of dawn it may not be the best thing to try and make a six hour trip on Christmas Day. And, maybe you should read the directions first. Or at least after the first 3 times you mess something up. Just some lessons learned. :)

How about you? Do you have any Christmas experiences you can laugh about now, but DO NOT want to relive?

A Blast From Christmas Past!

WARNING: Obnoxious amount of pictures.

So today is the first day of December and I must admit, I am not feeling it yet. I've packed up most of my living and dining room to make room for Christmas decorations, but I have yet to actually get those decorations out. Much of my hesitancy is that I really wanted a real, live tree this year. I've never had one. I had grand dreams of packing up the family and heading to the tree farm to pick out the perfect tree. Unfortunately my dreams are continually interrupted by visions of a more Griswold family experience. I've already experienced the tree being too big. The Christmas before Josh and I got married my friend Sabrina (who got married 2 weeks before me) were out at Micheal's looking for wedding stuff. I don't remember getting any wedding stuff, but we did find beautiful 7 ft. Christmas trees on clearance. Y'all, we did not have a place to live or a piece of furniture at that point, but we had a Christmas tree. :)

Turns out, 7 ft. Christmas trees are not really designed for 900 sq. ft. apartments. We actually only put up half of the tree our first year of marriage. If I'm lyin' I'm dyin'! We only had room for the front of the tree. But, it was our first Christmas and we were in love and we could have decorated a cactus and that would have been fine with me. I mean, not that we are not in love anymore, but now we have a family and I have visions of grandeur...

Again, those visions are interrupted by the idea of a dog and a two year old competing for the tree's water source. So, I will keep you updated about this tree drama. I know you will be waiting on pins and needles. :) Oh yeah, that's the other thing. I hear the pine needles are a pain to clean up...

I thought I would work myself into the spirit of the season by remembering some of my favorite Christmases from the past. And I have to say, it is probably because I have such a bad memory and can't remember much else, but last Christmas was one of my all time favorites. First, it was my first Christmas in 5 years that I was not in school or working full-time so I really felt like I got to enjoy the season a lot more. My sister and brother in law who were living in Alaska at the time also flew in a few weeks before Christmas and I got to meet my nephew, Luke, for the first time!
Here I am with Luke the Moose or Luke the Reindeer. :) I know one day he will join my children in discussing what a dork I am, but for now, he thinks I'm totally cool and funny! :)We had so much fun going out to Pier Park to see Santa and ride the train. As you can see, Kate was so thrilled with Santa.
This was the first Christmas my family got to spend together in, um I'm not sure. Jenny and Dillon moved a couple of weeks after Eli was born, so it was a while! Josh couldn't get off of work so he didn't get to go with me. :( Y'all, I got up at 3:00 am and loaded up 3 kids and drove six hours by myself! We even drove home to snow!!! I consider it one of my great achievements in life. :)

This is my "little" brother Philip and my sister Jenny.

This was Jenny's first time to meet Kate and my first time to meet Luke! So exciting!!

All of the cousins

Me and my babies. Kate cracks us all up!

Our family pic last year. It is just amazing how much kids change every year.

Ta-Da! You should see the 50 pictures I took of her trying to get one of her standing still!

Sarah and Eli ringing the bells in the Christmas program

Christmas pj's from Nana. I obviously promised Eli something really cool to get that smile. :)

You just can't have enough pics of screaming babies at Christmas time. :)

Cookies for Santa...I think we may have decided Santa might possibly already be full by the time he got to our house. :)

Well, I've had fun remembering this Christmas past. Do you have a favorite Christmas?