Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays my lovely friends and family! I hope this season is bringing much joy and happiness to your family. Can you believe this year is already coming to a close?? I just don’t even know where the time goes anymore. My kids are just growing up so fast and I feel like when the holiday season rolls around I try to cram in every “must do” in the short amount of time I have to do it so that they have the best holiday of their lives. Did I take them to the pumpkin patch? Did I get the perfect selfie? Did I get a picture of the kids trick-or-treating? Did we watch all the holiday specials and movies we need to watch? Cause ya know if you don’t then did you really completely celebrate that holiday??? I find myself checking off these mental must do lists and it’s not to keep up with the “social media moms” or to stage the perfect little life on Facebook. It’s because I want these moments for my kids. I want them to have these memories that they will carry with them the rest of their lives and carry on with their kids and tell them stories of when they were young. Now I am in NO hurry for these precious tiny humans to grow up, but one of the things that I think is going to be the coolest about them becoming adults is the stories they are going to tell, how did they remember it. I’m trying my best to make traditions for our family and create moments that we can all look back on as a family and know that those belong to us and no one else.
One thing that I started when Zach and I got married was buying a Christmas ornament every year for the tree. Now, mind you it was just a little ol’ 3 foot tree that I had before we ever laid eyes on each other but it filled up fast because when you get married in December people like to give you ornaments as gifts. We got several. Then after we got Phoebe she too needed an ornament for the tree and then of course Evelyn came along and now Oliver. So, as you can probably tell that little 3 foot tree got crowded. After we moved into our first home we got a real size, taller than us tree that became THE Christmas tree, decorated with different decorations but the 3 foot tree still got decorated and put in a corner somewhere. You can never have too many trees. I don’t care what anyone says!
This year, though, I decided that I didn’t want that little tree to just hold the “other” decorations. I wanted that tree to grow and show the kids just how special each and every ornament is on that tree. Obviously, the ornament that is picked out each year by each of them and the one for Zach and I and the ones that remind us of Phoebe. But as we pulled out the box this year we found Evelyn’s stuff she made from school and the one we bought from our trip to Branson this summer and from when Zach and I went to New York City and Mexico. This is a tree to remember all the special times we have throughout the year and times before they were even born that we can tell them about. So when I say that tree grew, it grew. We had to go buy a bigger tree for all the ornaments it’s going to hold in its lifetime and put it in the front room where the kids like to watch television. And who knows, we may need to get an even bigger one in the future because this thing is already so full. I don’t know how this all fit on the 3 footer. What I do know is for the years to come I am going to love taking them to the store to pick out what is special and meaningful to them and watch them place it on the tree. And as they have their own children I hope it continues to be a tradition to go pick out a new ornament for (gulp) grandma and grandpa’s tree. Man, try to type that without some tears developing.
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year,
April
April
