Our Christmas

This is a VERY belated post about our Christmas break! We've had some craziness in our lives for the past month, but that is a whole other post (which I am sure I will get to eventually).

We spent Christmas at home this year, which was a nice change of pace. The more Ken travels with work, the more he likes to spend our holidays at home. It is very fun and sweet to begin our own family traditions centered around the birth of our Lord Jesus. I also feel like I SEE my kids more when we are at home during the holiday season. With all of the work it takes to pack up gifts and get everything together and then all of the fun stuff we do when we actually get to where we are going, I often feel that Christmas morning comes and goes and I haven't enjoyed my children. This year was different. We did a lot of the low key things like decorating the house, making gingerbread cookies, drinking hot chocolate around the fire, wrapping up in blankets and driving around to see Christmas lights, and going to our own church together. It was so enjoyable to just focus on my own little family as we celebrated God's greatest gift to us.

We also decided to just get the kids one nice gift each, instead of a ton of little things. I was so happy we decided to do that! The grandparents showered them with presents, so they had more than one gift to open, which was nice. Another plus was that we just didn't spend all that time and money on unnecessary things. I felt like we wasted a little less this year, which is always a good feeling! On the whole, it was a much simpler Christmas than we have ever done before, and it was very satisfying and rewarding. It left us time and energy to enjoy the true meaning of Christmas and each other.

After Christmas, we packed up the car and headed to Washington, D.C. where my family was gathered. My dad was speaking at a college kids' conference, so we all spent the week after Christmas together running around our nation's capital. Stay tuned, as there will be more pictures of Hannah's and Harry's adventures to come...