Adventures of the Supersized 6

Greetings,
I know long time no post...sorry. I have 4 kids, I am a class room mom, a husband, a big house to clean, lots of laundry to do, a dog to entertain, and I am adding college student to that list.

Christmas was fun. I had a goal to maintain 3 gifts for each child, and their stockings. Once again I blew that rule out of the water. It is hard when you get cash, and gift cards in the mail from distant relatives, and you find opportunity to "get more"! The frenzy was thick this year. With the difficulty of Christmas landing on a Sunday, ( I mean that in a nice Christian way) we opted to celebrate a day early. We wrote Santa explaining our overloaded schedule and he agreed to cut us some slack. He arrived in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Mamaw and Papaw joined us when we woke and we opened more presents than I could count. Noah opened his first gift and was so pleased with it that we had to open the rest of his gifts for him. We then headed over to Mamaw and Papaws for round 2. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas turkey (Yum!), enjoyed birthday cake (Happy Birthday Jesus!) and headed to Mamaw and Papaws church for candle light service. We came home and collapsed glad that we didn't have any santa chores to do. Sun up and we were back on the move to our church for morning service, and we bolted for Springfield right afterwards. Grandma and Grandpa had dug out the ol aluminum Christmas tree! What a sight. I actually liked it! What can I say I love the history and nostalgia that tree has had. It was nice to see some of the family and of course the kids got more loot to add to the booty.

When it was all over and the pile was complete we had 8 new movies, 5 new video games, and a stack of board games as tall as me! Their are doodle monsters running about my house, Barbie is enjoying her new ride, and Jedi padawan's are practicing all over. There is a tunnel for Annika in my living room, and the herd of care bears are enjoying it. The knights are doing what they do in the castle, and Madie is managing the largest littlest pet shop imaginable. Oh yeah, and there was a nice little car accident. While my father in law was backing out of the drive way he failed to notice my van, parked in the same spot I part every time I am there. My passenger side door now sports a nice dent. All that I cared about was getting the door open. I guess once you get rid of car payments it is time to wreck it! We paid it off in November...

All in all if was a succesful Christmas. I do feel guilty though as a mom. Not because I failed in getting all that they wanted, but for getting them all that they wanted. Am I the only one who feels that the holiday snuck up on me? The last thing I remember was getting the kids halloween costumes ready, I blinked and I have a house thrashed with Christmas everywhere I look. I failed at doing what I truly want to do, and that is experience Christmas. I just did Christmas this year. I felt that I had no choice, it all happened so fast. I had so many things on the calendar and so many obligations to attend to. I only read the Christmas story in Luke to my children a couple of time, in previous years I would read it every night. Madie and I never did make any cookies or goodies. I simply never found the time. We did at least bake a birthday cake for Jesus. I had decided in the summer that Jake and Madie were old enough to volunteer and serve food at a shelter. I never found time for that either. I did my shopping either on the fly or last minute. I started with a list, but in the end was just grabbing in hopes that it was equal for each child. The only thing that was new this year and in the direction that I wanted was our Christmas tree topper. In lieu of an angel or a star we had a simple wreath of thorns. I wanted our tree to be a reminder of what this truly is about.
As I took our tree down last night and I wrapped up that wreath I felt like crying. Why did I not pay attention to that wreath this past month? Will next year be the same, or worse? I pray that I can make it more like what it is intending to be. Christ's birthday.

TLM

I have been so busy with living life that I have neglected to document it!

I plan on sitting down and writting out some of the new and amazing things that the kids have been up to. I think it may end up being after the holidays. Merry Christmas to all!

TLM