Merry Little Christmas

We had a pretty low key, nice Christmas. It was a Sullins year, so we spent the day with Charles and Ellen. We were originally also planning on spending dinner with Jeff's brother's family, but they got sick and so we had to go to plan B. We had a leisurely morning opening presents and having brunch (I was happy with my breakfast casserole which was a new recipe), and then Jeff, and Mary, and I went to church while Ellen cooked dinner. Then we came home and rested, and had a nice Christmas dinner.

It was sure nice of Ellen to take over all the cooking so I could rest. Isn't it? I have the best in-laws!

I managed to blow the only part of the dinner that I was in charge of - dessert! For some dumb reason, I didn't think I needed to refridgerate the French Silk Pie and so when I went to cut it, it was very soupy. We decided we better not eat it and risk getting sick. I have NO idea what I was thinking! I'm just going to attribute this mistake to "pregnancy brain" and leave it at that. Fortunately, we had some cookie dough from my neighbor, Angie, that we baked right up and had with ice cream. So that was good.

Here are a few pics:
Mary enjoying her new stroller


GrammE helping Mary open her new squeaker shoes that she got her. Mary loved them immediately so much that she totally undressed right there on the spot to try them on. We heard squeaking the entire rest of the day! I didn't mind it at all. It made me happy.


Charles and Ellen opening the photo tray I made for them with photos of Mary from the latest photo shoot. Too bad I didn't get a pic of the actual tray. Oh well.

Mary with her new stuffed doggie (and GrammE's hat for her dolly - Ellen collects dolls). When we were at IKEA, Mary took to it right away. Jeff wondered about getting it for her, but I kind of discouraged him. But he went back and got it because he knew she'd really love it. Isn't that sweet?


Jeff got his parents Harry Potter scarves.



Christmas contentment. Mary snuggling her new doggie, wearing her new shoes, and surrounded by toys- complete with chocolate smear on face. Does it get better than that when you're a kid?



Can't wait to hear about all of your Christmases too!

Our Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve, we had our annual(or is it biannual?) Murray Christmas Talent Show. We all get together, have soup in a bread bowl and then those who want to can perform a talent.

This year, we met at Catherine and Aaron's home. It was nice to see where they live. We also had Catherine's and my in-laws with us too. So it was a nice big party. Mary was ecstatic the whole night. First she couldn't ever really get over Aaron's dog, Blue. She kept bending down to the dog and yelling, "HI!!! How ARE you???!!!" The dog was just totally patient with her. Then she and her cousin Sheri Anna had tons of fun too. She was so happy, she couldn't have cared less that I forgot to bring her food for dinner. Luckily, Catherine hooked us up with some yogurt.

Here are a few pics.

Aaron juggling for us.


One of my favorite renditions of the night, was Catherine playing Bartok's (?) 4th Invention.


I sang a piece called, The Lamb. I struggled a bit because I was having an allergic and asthmatic reaction to something in their house. I normally don't have asthma, but I do sometimes with allergies or colds.


My nephew Joe watching me sing. : ) He's getting so big. He is starting to go down that wonderfully awkward path of adolescence complete with glasses and braces. Yet, he is still a good looking kid I think. We should all be so lucky.


A really cute pic of Jennifer and Emma.


Hannah's stunning new look!


A really cute pic of Charles and Ellen.


The Robinsons


The Smiths


The Williams


The Sullins


The Murrays (well except of course the ones that were in the other pics: )).

Christmas Time Is Here

We've been busy - as I'm sure all of you have been - getting ready for Christmas.

My Kantorei Christmas concerts are over and went well. I did have to sit down during one song in one of the concerts so I wouldn't faint. But I was okay after that. And Jeff brought Mary to my last concert. I was such a proud Momma and completely distracted by her the whole time - even though she was very well behaved. After we (the choir) entered the church and the audience stopped clapping, I heard Mary yell, "YAY!" and a little laughter in the audience from it. It was pretty cute. And then she decided to conduct the choir from the back - waving her arms widely. She got to see quite a bit of the concert and that made me happy.

Jeff has had the whole week off which has been really great! He saved up his vacation time, I guess. We've been shopping a lot this week and I've enjoyed his help and just all of us being together.

Still have a little shopping to do and gift arranging. But I think it will come together.

Christmas cards have been sent. This year, I still hadn't gotten Mary's 2 year old photos done. So I decided that I would have my friend Eldeen do them and then use one of them for the Christmas card. She has a photography and card business (cardchef.com) and so it made sense to do it this way. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the main photo of the card. Don't you?


We've also been cleaning and cooking and going to parties and things. Here are some pics.

We made sugar cookies. Mary loved wearing a Strawberry Shortcake apron and eating the frosting (of course).



One final vacuum before Christmas. Felt good to have everything clean. Today was the first day Mary was brave enough to actually hold the real vacuum. She liked it!



Mary and me in our tracksuits (my uniform these days practically). I'm definately getting bigger. The skin on my tummy itches from the stretching.



I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. Thanks for following my blog and letting me talk it all out.

I'm in THAT stage of life.

Okay, saying it like that makes it sound as though I'm going through menopause. Clearly, I'm not going through that - being prego and all.

No. I'm in that other stage in life. You know . . . the one where as you are cleaning up a mess in one room, your child is making another one in the next? The one where you have a pile of books to be repaired that have been torn apart page by page hoping that someday you'll get to them, but wondering if it's worth the energy? The one where the baskets that used to hold toys in an orderly fashion, now can barely contain everything being thrown in them and so the stuff inside them hangs and spews out and THAT is actually okay with you????

Yea! That stage.

I know. I know! I just need to not care and relax about this sort of thing. But it drives me crazy!!!!

I can hear my Mom now . . . . She used to say I needed to have a few kids and that would help me not to be so fussy. Or I think the word my family uses is "particular". : )

I also hear her say, "The home is supposed to serve the family. Not the other way around". And it is true. I don't want to be a tyrant in my home making everyone around me miserable because I want the house pristine. On the other hand, too much mess causes misery and contention and chaos and danger.

So I guess I'm trying to figure out where the balance is and where it will be in our home.

I have a childhood memory of playing with one of my friends. She got something on her shirt and got upset because she knew her mother would be upset with her. I remember thinking, "My mother wouldn't care". It was nice knowing that my mother was easy going when it came to things like this. Kids are kids. They get dirty. They cause messes.

True too though, I remember loving to go to other friends homes that were immaculate and had nice furnishings. Funny huh? I have always dreamed of having a beautiful home. Not that our home wasn't clean or nice growing up. It was . . . practical. My parents taught us to work. And we always had Saturday's work charts to complete and if we didn't clean our rooms, my Dad would take things on the floor and we'd have to pay him a dollar to get them back. But we had more traffic - more scoffs on the walls - and less money for nice things. My parents spoiled me with lessons. And I don't regret that. My Mom actually came from a small town and her family had the nicest home in their town. She has told me before that she was actually embarrassed by it as a kid. So my Mom made a choice about how she ran her home. And it was a nice place to be.

Yesterday I was so irritated by how disorderly my house was it caused me to be in the most vile mood and even I didn't want to be around me.

I want you all to know . . . I HAVE relaxed my standards. At any given moment there are toys in every room and that is with me constantly picking up all the time practically. I just can't keep up on it all. I've given up almost completely doing anything for myself and just hope that I can keep the home functional and everyone fairly content.

But I really don't enjoy this part of parenting. Mentally it is hard for me. I'm happier when things are clean, orderly, and beautiful. But I'm TRYING to just realize that I won't be in this stage forever and to enjoy sweet Mary while she is at this wonderful, adorable age.

But I do make her help me clean up (a bit). She doesn't like it though.

I welcome your advice, commiserations, etc. Thank you.