Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The Stockings I made for the kids

The stockings hung by the chimney with care


Amelie



Ricky






The Stockings I made for the kids

Ricky


Cohen



Reagan





Hadley







Callum










Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Seeing the Lights

Last night I made chicken pamesan, green beans with garlic and mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy. We ate together and dad suggested we go for a drive to look at Christmas lights. As a child I remember going to a house about 15 minutes away. It is all beautifully decorated with moving ferris wheels and a lit up Santa's workshop. I mean, literally the yard is FULL of lit up decorations. We brought our dog Skip and our kitten Chloe and talked about the lights. When we got there we decided to get the kids out two at a time to walk along in front of the house to get a better look. In the dark I could see their shadows, hand in hand, looking at this creation. I held Hadley (babe) up so she could see the lights too. We then drove home all excited about this house and vowed to go back every year and maybe even bring hot chocolate next time.

Ok, lets try this again. Everything in this post is true. Lets put a bit of real in it, shall we? lol

I scramble around the kitchen trying to make dinner. The wonderful smells fill the air while the kids whine and argue with each other. One of "those" days! We are going to decorate the inside of our house tonight! The kids are so excited! Well dinner takes longer than expected and as I clean up the kitchen I am thinking of a way to change decorating until tomorrow night. Hey everyone, we are going to make eggnog and read stories together instead! A bunch of groans. Ron has the wonderful idea of driving around to look at lights. Coats, boots and a scramble later and we are all buckled in. We get to the end of the road and Hadley is pretty upset. We head back home to get a warm bottle and head back out again. She is still pretty upset so we pull over 1 minute up the road and I help her poop for about 20 minutes while Amelie looks around our truck for a spare diaper. She is finally ready to go back into her carseat so we head out. As we drive to our destination Cohen is whining that he wishes we stayed home to decorate. I am starting to think the same thing. How much longer? Wahhhh! So Ron says, here comes the lights! The house from my childhood is still there! It is beautiful! The kids are very excited and animately talk about the characters that are lit up and moving. I have this wonderful idea for Ron to take two kids at a time to get a closer look. He groans and doesn't want to but does. We take turns using two coats and I see them in the dark, holding hands, against the lit up yard. I can see that Ron is enjoying himself as well as the children. As Reagan is taking her turn she runs ahead and is beside the road. While carrying Callum, Ron is running with a sore back to catch her. He is annoyed but is fine and comes back to the car. Hold the kitten so she doesn't get out. (She doesn't like car rides!) Don't let Skip out! Here you take this coat and STOP CRYING, you will get a turn! They all see the beautiful display and Ron then farts and we are all gagging and he can't stop laughing. He then says, It is better to give than to recieve! We are all laughing and gagging. We then drive home talking about what we saw and Amelie says, "That is my favorite place in the whole world!" We get them to bed without brushing their teeth or flossing because it is so late. They fall asleep quickly.

Both stories are true. One is a bit more real. Yes, it is nice to share all of the positives with everyone but it is also nice to share what really happens. It shows people that we are all human and we aren't going to have life all handed to us with roses. In ten years we will look back and remember going to that house as a family and the magical feeling of it. I remember going to that house with my family and having hot chocolate that my mom brought. I don't remember everything surrounding it. I doubt my children will either. Sure life can get tough and life can get frustrating but hey, that IS life. Enjoy it and spend it with the ones you love.