Four Beautiful Blessings

Just sitting hear with tears in my eyes, thinking about these four gigantic blessings of my life, my year, and my each and every day. 

They are beautiful. They are kind. They are forgiving. They are fun. They are dynamic in their personalities and their many abilities. They grow at different rates. They flourish with different souls. They smile with different faces. 

But always, always, their hearts are woven together in a love for life, for one another, for family. They cherish their parents. They are grateful and generous. The accept challenges with a pure and unwavering faith that things will work out. They are gentle. They are willing to be taught. They are beautiful, excellent specimens of the precious potential that we, as human beings, should strive to reach.

They are Julia, Savanna, Alexa, and Spencer. They are my babies. My heart. My life. And I am blessed beyond blessed beyond blessed to call them mine.

NPX

Two days before Thanksgiving, we did an overnighter to Flagstaff (a.k.a. The North Pole) for the famous North Pole Experience. We (Craig) decided that this would probably be the last time that our kids were little enough to all enjoy a Santa-themed Christmas experience so we figured we would take advantage one last time. (If I remember correctly, we said the same thing a couple years ago when we did the Polar Express for "the last time" and Julia was nine.) We shall see how many more last times there are to go on adventures like these.)

We got to freezy Flagstaff on Tuesday and went right to bed. (Hahaha, that's funny. As if there were any such thing as going "right to bed" in two hotel rooms with three adults and five kiddos between them.)

The next day after an easy breezy (hahahaha) trip down for our continental breakfast, we started things off with a trip to the pool. Yours truly was (not) sad to have forgotten to grab her bathing suit at home, which precluded her from taking a dip in the tepid waters of the heated hotel pool.

Craig, however, who is a much better parent than I in this department, jumped right in. Literally. 

Because what else is there to do when there is a semi-heated hotel pool and children involved? Sit alongside it in your clothes and snow boots and take pictures, that's what.

After the pool we killed some time at Peter Piper Pizza (Craig and 4 kids) and Target/Pier 1 (Linda, Julia, and me) before it was time to catch the special bus which passes through the magical portal to the North Pole.

Once we had safely arrived at our arctic destination, we passed through the many different departments of Santa's workshop.

First was the Toy Hall of Fame:

Then the kids helped out the elves in Santa's workshop:

We got to peek into Santa's wrapping room next:

After that was cookies, Christmas carols, and snowman soup in Mrs. Claus' bakery:

Then letters to Santa:

Waiting patiently for Santa in the North Pole Command Station:

 And finally, a visit with the big guy himself:

Then of course, we availed our travel-worn selves of the fabulous photo ops back in Flagstaff. Traveling through the portal to the North Pole was tiring, but we still had plenty of reasons to smile. (Like the fact that we visited early enough in the year that it wasn't freezing cold with snow on the ground just yet.) 

Whew. I think this is enough holiday cheer to carry us into the next century. Or the next year, at least. Which, incidentally starts TOMORROW!

So...Thanksgiving Happened

Sometimes, (often) in the mad rush towards Christmas (and lately because of the monopolizing forces at work taking over my desk and computer) I find that Christmas is over and done with before I remember to mention Thanksgiving. Remember Thanksgiving? That Thursday holiday between Halloween and Christmas that involves turkey and cranberry sauce? Yes, that's the one.

Our Thanksgiving this year was probably the most calm and easy one we've ever had. Pajamas all day. Catered by Bobby Q's (and a little bit by Grandma Linda, who likes certain side dishes done a certain special way). It was simple. It was uncomplicated and lovely. We soaked up every minute.

And then we thought...hey, since we are intent on taking it easy today, why not go ahead and get out the Christmas boxes and start decorating for Christmas before dinner? Cuz that's how we roll.

Project Season

As I have said before, for some reason the month of November inspires Craig to begin home improvement projects. Not sure why. I have several theories, one of which is that Craig was struck by a rare home improvement virus in his teenage years that only flares up once a year before the holidays begin. We are still awaiting lab confirmation on that one.

This year's projects included covering our plain and lonely niche with pallet wood...

 painting a corner of the family room that I've had my eye on for quite a while for a gallery wall...

...and using the pallet wood again for a corner seating area in the family room as well. 

After that, I convinced this handsome bearded honey of mine that his services as a picture hanger-upper would be an excellent gift to me for Christmas. So, the day after Christmas, I pulled out all of my hoarded pictures and decor and we (Craig) got to work.

 Still needs a little work, but so far I am loving {loving} loving it.

Plus, did I mention the amazing and tear-jerking gift of beautiful string art that the girls and Craig gifted me for Christmas? I was beside myself with gratitude for all of the hard work that they put into such a thoughtful project. And more than a little ecstatic that they would be so perfect on this lovely wall of ours. (No wonder Craig wanted to wait until after Christmas to start hanging everything up.)

I love these wonderful babies of mine. Even the ones with beards on them.

P.S. Spencer has been hard at work on some projects of his own lately:

Project: Eat All the Chocolate Milk 

Project: Never Let Anyone Come Over, Ever 

Project: Chew All of Mommy's (Favorite, Limited Edition, Sold Only Once a Year) Gum

Needless to say, I like Craig's projects much better.