Holidays always seem to pass by way too fast.  I never feel like I accomplish all that I want to do, make or see.  There is so much pressure these days to have the perfect Pinterest worthy holiday to blast all over social media.  I admit that I do have boards on Pinterest, but I never have the time or energy to actually do anything with them.  But, I feel the pressure, and I genuinely WANT to create the most wonderful holiday experience for my family.  Growing up, my mom made every single holiday magical!  She has this incredible talent of transforming something simple into something extraordinary.  She blows Martha Stewart way out of the water, even now.  Too bad she didn’t capitalize on her talents back then!

So, here is a quick peek into our holiday frenzy 2016!

Halloween

Every year we host the neighborhood Dead End Party on our lawn.  We started the tradition our first year here.  We are lucky to have an incredible neighborhood with fantastic families living just doors down.  We all moved in around the same time and have kids close in age, so we thought it would be fun to get to know each other through this festive gathering.  The kids love it, and it grows every year!

This year we kept it fairly simple in the costume department.  Jack was a mummy and the rest of us were jailbirds.  Very easy, yet time consuming costumes to make!  I enjoyed every second of making them.  Brought me back to my designing days 🙂

 

Christmas

Christmas is big in our house.  We start decorating the day after Thanksgiving, and our North Pole elves, Chippy & Darla arrive shortly after.  Chocolate chip cookies are constantly being baked, and holiday movies are watched over and over.  The kids love all of it, and this year Wes was sort of understanding bits and pieces of it.  Logan was really grasping the Santa part, as she would giggle when she would see him and get excited.

We did our usual traditions, and this year Chippy packed himself into a mason jar with cotton balls so we could take him along on our drive to see all of the lights.  That Chippy just thinks of everything!

David’s family gets together the weekend before Christmas and it is SO much fun!  He has 2 sisters and a brother, and between all of us there are 11 kids ranging from 18 to 2.  It is a day full of playing, eating, laughing and fully enjoying each and every blessing.  Logan absolutely loves this get together!!!  She has 5 girl cousins, and adores each and every one of them.  Before I go into detail, she loves her boy cousins…it’s just nice to have her around other girls for a change!

Logan has this special bond with one particular cousin, Sarah Parker.  “SP” can get her to smile no matter what, and get her to laugh uncontrolably.  I love watching the two of them.  There will be more about these sweet, beautiful cousins in another post soon.  They definitely deserve their own!

This year I hosted the Christmas dinner.  It was just easier for everyone.  Usually my mom does it all, which is a lot to live up to.  But, given our recent black cloud, I didn’t feel any pressure to make it as beautiful as hers.  This decision was pretty last minute, so we worked with what we had 🙂  The food was great (thanks, mom!), the house was cozy, and the company was even warmer.  It was a great Christmas!

New Years Eve

 

NYE was a fun time at our house growing up.  My mom would cook a fantastic dinner and my dad would set up a balloon drop in our living room.  My sisters and I would decorate the house with streamers and make sure we had hats and noise makers.  Well, I’ve carried that tradition over to my family, and it seems to get better and better every year, despite our balloon drop fail this year 😉

We haven’t talked about resolutions with the kids yet, we just talk about how we are going to make this year better.  Jack is going to make bigger and better creations, Logan is going to move independently (although she hasn’t actually told me this, I can tell by how she wants to go where she wants to, no matter what!), and Wes will finally get his wild hair under control!

As for David and I…who has time for resolutions when we have a crazy crew to tend to?!  We are just going to keep making the best of our blessings and strive for the best all around.  And, we are going to take more time for ourselves, both as a couple and individually.  Health is also going to take top priority.  Both of us were very fit and active pre kids, and during, but it is harder to get to the gym these days.  So, I ordered a Total Gym!  I’ve wanted one for years…looks fun and functional.  Well, I’ve had it for a couple of weeks and LOVE it.  Did you know you could do Pilates on it?!  Sold.

Here’s to a happy and healthy and crazy 2017!!!

 

 

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