At Years End.....31 December

So...With only a few moments left before I rush out the door to one very important Birthday Party Downtown with all the twenty-somethings (wish me luck....but I'm so excited!) to reflect on this past year, I leave you with this.  These last few months have taken me to deep dark places I never knew, struggles I had never seen....both as a Mom, wife, friend and person.  But now, I'm hopeful that I'm on the otherside and have emerged....different.  Different,but so appreciating "Normal" again.  Because Isn't that what life is all about.  Coming out on the other side of Something REALLY hard and becoming better .  After all, All I can offer my children, my husband, my family and friends is a very authentically imperfect human person.  Making the Journey so much more interesting.  So onward and upward to 2014, with so much work to do in this mess called life.  May 2014 be the best year yet....JOY and CHEERS!  (Enjoy the Holiday Show....15 minutes :)

30 December

Look who FINALLY Lost his first tooth, after it was hanging by a thread for weeks.  And wrote a cute note to the tooth fairy to boot (guess what, she is a little shy....who knew!)

28 December

The First Time out.....The weather was perfect (almost 40)!  AND REALLY, managing kids and equipment and complaints and cold, it really is getting easier the fourth year.  The Boys and I closed the Mountain Down.  Lucas is getting to be such a fast skiier I can't keep up.  Fun, Fun!  Love this Sport, for giving us a reason to be outside, in winter (preventing the cabin fever) and making the coldest part oft he year fly by.

27 December

This Moment.

So, So many Awesome amazing moments from this past week of celebrations.  From our solstice fire, to Cookie making Day, Parties, Family sleepovers,   playing music and entertaining.   Embracing the mess and the beauty in the chaos and the imperfections that make these celebrations so fully alive. Now were in the midst of doing some major room changing around, staying in our PJs all day, playing inside and out, cleaning house and getting ready for a ski trip tomorrow.  These in between holiday days are just the best.  Many more photos to share from our Christmas celebrations to share soon!

20 December

This Moment.

14/15 December

The weekend lens....

Lucas joined the 1st/2nd grade basketball league and is loving playing games on the weekends...

He's also playing constantly with a couple of wiggly teeth that are going to come out any day!

We celebrated our  annual Xmas Dinner with the Day family.  Full of fun and laughter as always.  We let ALL the kids watch Christmas Vacation for the first time (they were thrilled!) AND the 2nd Annual ugly sweater contest (carefully planned out this year)...Believe me, there were no winners :)

 Our Annual Day at the Christkindlesmarkt craft fair at our church.  We always love going there for lunch and helping in the children's only shopping room.  It's fun to see what the kids come out with for their Moms and Dads (and no raffle win this year, even though J was sure of it).

And Sunday......we made way for like 17 inches of Fresh snow.  Snow and COLD!  Surely it will be a white Christmas this year!  We shoveled and snowblowed and played.  We came in and out and dried things by the fire.  We cross country skied and snowshoed and drank hot chocolate.  We went out for pizza and grocery shopped as a family (love everyone is helping do this chore as a family now).

December Weekends are awesome.

13 December

This Moment.

11 December

What came in my inbox today for the Daily OM:

December 11, 2013
Different Ways of Navigating
We are All in the Same Boat

by Madisyn Taylor 

We are all on this earth together learning and teaching together in many different ways.

We池e all in the same boat. We just have different paddles, and perhaps we find ourselves on different rivers. We all live in human bodies. These are the vehicles in which we move through our world. We are all made of flesh, blood, and bone, with brains, hearts, and lungs to power us. Our paddles葉he tools we use to move through the world要ary, as do the bodies of water葉he environments擁n which we find ourselves. 

Some of us use our high IQs to get where we want to go. Some of use our smiles, others use kindness, a gift with language, or athletic ability. Some of these qualities we were born with and others are skills we have learned. Considering this metaphor in light of your own life can be very enlightening. What tools are you using to get from point A to point B in your life? Chances are, you and the people you know have used many different tools in various combinations throughout your lives to get where you needed to go. Just as with oars or paddles, a balanced approach is best. If you rely too much on one thing, like beauty, to open doors, you fail to be well-rounded and you may eventually lose your equilibrium. And if you lose that one quality, you have no paddle at all. This is inspiration to develop multiple tools to navigate your world. 

Some of us may be moving along paths that are like rushing rivers; others may be on a large, still lake. We have all felt, at one time or another, tossed about on a stormy ocean. Through all this, we are never really alone, even though it might seem that way. There is inspiration all around us in the form of other people making their way through the world, in the very same boat. Remember to look around you for role models, companionship, and encouragement. 

10 December

Spending a very Rare night all together at home (skipping swim lessons due to icy driving conditions), cooking dinner and cleaning up together, finishing homework, sledding outside in the dark, reading our Xmas books by the warm fire.  Love this.

9 December

Ethan our Elf was here......and this year, he's having a bit more fun.  Leaving little notes and hiding surprises.  Love this tradition.  (even when a 6 year old tells the 11 year old that "the Elf is not real") Good Times.

8 December

Breakfast with Santa......
We have been doing this for years, prob since Lu was born and this year it seemed we were some of the oldest kids there....but as long as they keep loving it, we'll keep doing it (and even Lucas said this year that Trevor TOLD him....ahem, that this wasn't the REAL santa, that the REAL Santa is up in the North Pole), but he still brought a list, AND had to wear his Santa tie, AND it was magical.

And I LOVED that they moved the photos in front of that beautiful fireplace this year :)

7 December

Saturday.....the 2nd Annual North Pole Party. I SO love doing this. Decorating the house all up, putting the gingerbread houses together, getting ready. It WAS awesome. It didn't matter that kids were sick, our sleepover got cut short, that we forgot to get everyone tickets to the Santa breakfast or that four pizzas were burnt. The kids had fun, we had fun. Being together=awesome. Enjoy the pics!

6 December

This moment.......

1 December

The weekend Lens.....

Hello December!  So happy you are here!  Let the Christmas celebrations begin. 

Our Day started out Saturday with our annual candy cane making workshop.  They do it as a fundraiser for Make a Wish, WE always love it, really it never gets old.  

Next....off to get our Christmas tree.....we always say we're going to try a new place every year b/c it is slim pickings here and Josh insists on cutting his own tree.  BUT....it's right down the road so we ended up at Beech Ridge Farms again....for the 13th year (minus one when I was pregnant with Lucas and we bagged the whole thing and put up a fake tree.) It was cold.  It's always cold.

WE found our tree PRETTY quickly (again, it was cold).  WE wanted tall and skinny to go next to the chair in the front window.  All in ALL, once you get all the stuff on it, pretty much any tree looks good.

The traditional picture (sometimes we get a family shot, but this one was a hurry up and let's go shot....it was cold!)

Tying it to the roof of our van (this picture that includes the car might be cool to see in like 20 years)

And we got home to warm up with some hot chocolate in our Santa Mugs (we have 5 different ones that we have collected over the years)

And then while Dad was prepping the tree, we got out the ornaments (we have so many ornaments, seriously I have a problem with saving every little handmade, childmade thing).  the kids love looking through their own boxes and hearing the stories of the different ornaments, the ones for their first Christmases, their handprints, handwritten cards from my grandparents that have passed...the glass one that says 1950, the handmade needlepoint stockings.  It never gets old.  

The very best moment for me was when Josh unveiled the tree with all the lights on, and Bre walked Downstairs and said.....OH, MY, GOD.....IT'S BEAUTIFUL!  (Love how she always reminds me that it's the simple things in life that are the most important)

Then they decorated, with only a few casualties (and we really have so many ornaments we couldn't put them all up)

Then we wrote our letters to Santa....with a really cute letter I found on Pinterest.  Lots of Legos on their wishlists this year.

On Sunday.......We cooked out Thanksgiving feast (I worked on the actual thanksgiving this year).  We went out on a limb and ordered a farm turkey this year and cooked it on the big green egg.

Cooking a Turkey on a charcoal grill is no easy feat, but it came out amazing....along with a table full of fixings (my own cranberry sauce) and an 11 year old boy volunteering to say the prayer.

We are blessed.

(And we're going to be eating turkey for.like.ever.)