One Massive Holiday Recap

Every year since Sophia was born has been my favorite Christmas ever. I have so many magical Christmas memories from my childhood, and I feel so blessed that I get to re-live them all through the eyes of my own children now. So we made the most of it and did LOTS of fun things to celebrate the season. We talked a lot about Jesus's birth, and kept the reason for the season close to our hearts, filling our days with joy and celebration through and through!

Here are just some of the things we did...

We went to our city's Christmas parade - Amelia loved the marching bands most of all

and lighting of the capital and fireworks - it was freeeezing cold, but totally worth it!

Sophia with her little best friend, Zoe, and their frozen little noses

We decorated our house the way we do every year - with Charlie Brown Christmas playing and appetizers and snacks for dinner

My dad spent last year in Germany, and he brought back this beautiful Advent calendar



The girls' dresser





We invited two of the girls' best friends over and decorated gingerbread houses







with hot chocolate of course



Then one night, we had dinner and a bath as usual, but instead of getting into bed after the girls put their pajamas on, we drove to a park filled with Christmas light displays







The minute we left the park, the girls passed out





It was very fun and special for them, because we NEVER go anywhere in the evenings with them. So just being out after dark was an adventure for them - we opened the moon roof and looked at stars too (with the heater blasting!) We carried them into the house and put them to bed - they woke up the next morning so excited when they remembered the night before.

We saw Santa at the mall



(sorry for the crummy picture of a picture - I was too lazy to hook up our scanner)

Amelia was a bit of a grouch that day



but she cheered up when she saw the big feller in red!

We made classroom treats and teacher gifts (which I wrapped in paper painted by the girls - they had so much fun painting the paper, that I think I make use this for ALL my Christmas gifts next year! I just got a big cheap roll of white craft paper and let them go to town with green and red paint)



We baked gingerbread men and hung some on the tree,



but most of them just got eaten



I even discovered this one evening - it made me laugh SO hard!!!



Sophia asked if she could sleep under the Christmas tree one night



it made her so happy!

Sophia was an angel in our school's Christmas pageant



She did great and came up to me beaming afterwards, saying "that was so fun!"

We kept focused on the real meaning of the season by praying and singing around the Advent wreath every night (we will continue this through Epiphany)



Every year, we make a new plate to put Santa's cookies on. I was SO proud this year - this is the first year Sophia and Amelia painted all on their own with no help. Sophia painted Santa (I just love this Santa!!!) and Amelia made the polka dots around the edge





Sophia also decorated this candy jar for Daddy (she drew the designs on paper, then I taped her drawings onto the inside of the jar and traced them with leading, and then had her color the inside with the stained glass pen)





Christmas Eve we went to church in the pouring rain



Then came home, where the girls got to open the new pajamas that grandma sewed for them - she does this every year and it is one of my favorite traditions. They are so lucky to have such an awesome and gifted grandmother! Here is Amelia calling grandma to say thank you



and then... visions of sugarplums danced in their heads



Christmas morning, Sophia was most excited about giving Daddy his candy jar - I love that she feels the true joy of giving this year. She was literally jumping up and down







Amelia's big gift was a soccer goal and ball and lots of Thomas trains and tracks - she's our little tomboy and she was SO happy



Sophia's main thing that she wanted was a doll swing and she got this play school set, which was a HUGE hit!!!



Even Baby Henry got some things in his stocking



It was a truly blessed Christmas!

Back to Blogging!

First of all, thank you to all of you who sent me emails while my blog was "closed" - it was such a blessing to hear from each of you! I'm sorry that I disappeared without an explanation. Back in October, I got an email that spooked me and made me concerned about privacy, and I decided to close my blog and delete my Twitter account to protect myself and my family. I needed to spend some time thinking about what was best for us, and until today, I needed a break from blogging, and I just felt safer without our lives "out there."

However, today things changed. And aside from NEEDING this blog as an outlet, NEEDING all of my bloggy friends now, and NEEDING a way to keep my friends and family updated on things... I just feel like it's okay to open back up. I think I am pretty careful about not giving out too much personal information, and you might find me being slightly more careful from here on out.

SO, with that long introduction, let me tell you what's going on...

As of today, I am on bed rest. I am not quite 31 weeks pregnant with baby boy, who we've named Henry Miles. I have had lots on contractions for several weeks, and my blood pressure was also up a little with some protein in my urine last week. When I went in to my appointment this morning, I was dilated to 2 (so much for not sharing personal information ha!) A week ago I was still closed but starting to soften and thin, and my OB told me to take it easy. I thought I was taking it easy, but after today's appointment it was clear that I wasn't taking it easy enough. So, this will be my home for the foreseeable future

Hopefully for a long time, because I don't like the alternatives - hospital bed rest or labor and delivery and the NICU! I love my bedroom. The other half of the room is all built in book shelves covered in books. It is dark and cozy and very quiet in here. It used to be an office, then it was a nursery, and now it is our bedroom. We decided to give the girls the master bedroom when we moved them from toddler beds to a bunk bed, and give Henry the small bedroom that the girls used to share. And we got the old study, which is in the very back of the house with an attached bathroom and wood siding - something I never thought I would like in a room, but back here it makes it a cozy little cave for laying in and gestating!

Speaking of gestating, here's what I look like these days

I got a shot today to help mature Henry's lungs, and I'll get another one tomorrow. And unless I start contracting again, I will just follow up weekly with my OB to see how things are going. I haven't been calling when I have contractions, because I can always get them to stop, but from now on I am supposed to call anytime I have any contractions. This is hard... for example, right now I am having some cramping. It's not something I would ever normally call about unless it got worse or didn't go away, but I want to do the right thing and be cautious too.

When I opened my blog back up, I couldn't believe it had been since the beginning of October that I blogged! I have SO much to catch up on - I want to share what we've been up to the past couple of months. So, because I now have all the time in the world, I am going to spend the next few days posting updates with pictures of what we've been doing. I'm also going to be visiting my blog friends, who I've missed so much, to see what you've been up to!

It's good to be back :)