Merry & Bright then Puny & Green.

I just gotta do my traditional post-holiday write-up. Nothing dramatic, no crazy twist... it's just that, you know, over the years and a million pictures later the memories start to blur and fade and before you know it, those precious memories are buried or worse.

When Nathan and I started dating almost FIFTEEN YEARS ago (Lawd.), Christmas was kinda not fun. Pieces of it were, but we literally went 19 different places in just a few days. Always leaving early, arriving late. It was ridiculously stressful and just not fun. The idea of trying to continue that kind of schedule as our family grew in the future was overwhelming. Luckily, our families get that and we've all managed to reduce/combine where possible. Now four kids later, our Christmas schedule is actually very manageable AND enjoyable.

This was a GREAT year to be parents to my kids- such fun ages! The three oldest are old enough to get it, to appreciate it, to be over-the-top excited about it, ever so Christmasly.

Gonna share a few of my favorite moments and leave out a couple less favorable ones. Like the EPIC meltdown I had Christmas morning for absolutely no reason. Well, maybe exhaustion. And the disaster that was our one attempt at a family photo. But let's focus on the good!

The 21st :  We're going to Disney!
(Forgot my camera.)

The 22nd:

Brynn got her first American Girl doll! And she never saw it coming :)

All kinds of blurry, but look how excited she was opening her Little People farm!

The 24th:

 One of my favorite traditions is that the kids draw names and choose a ($5) gift for a sibling. Look at these two helping AG unwrap... such sweet sisters.

I promised Aunt Paige I would post my column that came out on Christmas Eve, since she missed it. So for her, and others:

"COLORING OUTSIDE THE LINES: Carly, you’re fired.

I’m kind of an over-achieving mom. The kind that hits the ground running with homemade pancakes, little notes in the lunchbox, and themed movie nights at home. I plan over-the-top birthday parties down to the last detail. I create costumes out of nothing to put on a living room talent show. But there is one area of parenting where I just cannot seem to get it together… THE UGLY WORD ELF ON A SHELF.

I got sucked in when my twins were in kindergarten. It seemed easy and cute and another way to be creative. Here’s what I didn’t consider when our elf, Carly, first showed up… I’M EXHAUSTED.

I pin lots of cool ideas (because that’s part of the gig- pinning other people’s cool ideas) and set a reminder on my phone; and yet, I fall asleep nearly every night with Carly still frozen in last night’s lame attempt to convince our children she had gone to the North Pole while they slept and then came back. Six out of seven days a week I jolt out of bed, shove the darn elf under my shirt and fling her to another spot out of sight. Carly is not creative or masterful, she is rarely mischievous, or even useful. Carly is EXHAUSTED.

Occasionally, Carly scrapes up the energy to dump some stuff on the counter or write on the mirror with dry erase markers. Once, I woke up in the middle of the night and shoved my husband out of bed to attend to the elf. Husband, “Okay… how do you spell ‘nutcracker’?” (Remember… it’s the middle of the night and we were both sleeping.). “Honey… nut and cracker.”

Husband, “Okay… how do you spell ‘cracker’?”  EXHAUSTED.

Now that it’s Christmas Eve, Carly’s “job” is done. I will be sending a letter back to the North Pole for her boss that recommends Carly take a permanent leave of absence. She need not return next year. Clearly, the gal could use a break. I feel fairly certain St.Nick will take my recommendation and consider it very seriously. For about 335 days. And then Carly will join us again because she’s an over-achiever. And I shall greet her with pancakes." 

And what do you know... for Carly's grande Christmas Eve finale, she forgot to go back to the North Pole completely. She just sat there in the same spot she'd been sitting for days. The kiddos guessed she just wasn't ready to leave our family. I'm sure that's it.

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The 25th! My absolute favorite section of hours out of the whole year! Cale came down for the first time at 3:00a. And every 30 mins after that. After 4:30a, I finally told him to get in the bed with us and I would let him know when he could get up. I told the girls they could come down any time after 5:30. They came at 5:31. Normally, Nathan goes upstairs to get Anna Gray so they can all come down together and I can capture their faces on camera (so much love that part). Since Layla is bigger, I suggested she bring down the baby this year. That way, Nathan can see their faces light up too. Magical, right?

When I heard them coming, I reminded Cale not to push anyone out of his way. He didn't care for that reminder, so his face did not look magical when I took his picture. Layla's did. Same big classic Layla smile every year! Except she was carrying Anna Gray... backwards, with her shirt shoved up and her crack showing. I'm pretty sure Brynn had the magical face too, but Nathan walked right in front of the camera when she came down, so the picture is of her ponytail and a bit of Nathan's belly sticking out of his shirt. Magical.

One of Cale's presents was a note from Santa. 

Reading... asking me to read Santa's awful handwriting... "One of your gifts didn't fit down the chimney. Look out the back door."... MY GOAL!... and he was gone.

At our house, Santa wraps the gifts but none are labeled. The littles open their stockings first, and a piece of paper at the bottom of their stockings reveals which gifts are their's. This one had both Brynn and Layla's paper on it.

I love their faces! 

With Christmas over, we planned a day to sit down and play. And it lasted exactly 24 hours.
And then the darkness came.

In the form of the super-bug that wiped out nearly our entire family.
AWFUL.

Brynn had a touch, but her stomach is tough as nails (like the rest of her).
I was victim #2. And I wanted to die.
I bleached and breathed for about 36 hours, thought we were in the clear...

Then Anna Gray woke up Monday morning and said "No waffle."
She sat her cup on the table and laid in the middle of the floor. Bless it.

It was all downhill from there.

I remember when she was sick a year ago and it was so hard to see her so pitiful and her not be able to tell me what was wrong. This time she kept saying, "Anna Gray hurt", "sad", "coooold" and signing "sick" over and over. HEARTBREAKING.

When Nathan walked in the door from work, his first words were "Get me the bowl."
THE bowl.

I didn't take any pictures of him laid up because I didn't think they were as precious as the baby's for some reason.

I was surprised to see him gone to work when I woke up this morning, but grateful he was out of the woods. Then the dog starting puking. The dog.
Heaven help me, I am over it.

I have bleached, bleached, and re-bleached. I bleached every surface of this house. I bleached the doorknobs and the light switches, and the baby gates. I even bleached the bleach, just in case.

We are bummed that we had to cancel our NYE plans at our house (I did not want to be responsible for sharing.), but happy to be starting the new year off well!!

2014 is gonna be a good one, folks!

Here comes Christmas...

Man, time flies.
The last month has been busy as always, but GOOD.

Memphis made a difference. It's not like my kids stopped and said, "Gee, Mom. I feel a little better. Thanks for that."

Brynn, who is normally very independent and lives in her own sassy world, has been very attached- asking for snuggle time, wrapping her arms all the way around with doses and doses of "I love you more than anything.". Very, very sweet. More than her actions, you can just tell that the load she is carrying is a little bit lighter right now. She acts like a girl in love. Not that anything that happened in Memphis was world-changing so to speak, but it was just enough to get her through that tough spot and she obviously feels less conflicted for the time being.

It took Cale a little longer. We still had a few rough spots in the week or so after Memphis. He was still testing to see if he acted ugly enough or said just the most terrible things- would we go away? We didn't. Now his rages are more few and far between, he regulates easier. Things that were setting him off, he is breezing by. When he is in that place, he is a gem. Best kid on earth. We hear him repeating mantras and affirmations that have been repeated to him. Even his prayers have changed. You learn a lot about someone when they let you listen to their prayers.

Things are just really GOOD right now. Belly laugh good. Most days! It is Christmas-time afterall. I love that they are all about giving away their toys and wrote letters to Santa asking him to skip our house and give to someone who needs it more... but don't want to share with their siblings? KIDS!

Nathan made it home in time for Thanksgiving- but that seems like a million years ago now. Despite the fact that Nathan whistles Christmas tunes year round, I'm kind of stickler for the transition occurring after all the Thanksgivings. So December 1st is our day, or at least our goal. This year, it fell on a Sunday so that seemed like the perfect time to shift into Christmas gear.

EVERY YEAR, I get giggly with the anticipation of cocoa and carols and twinkling lights and rosey cheeks (because if you have all the others, rosey cheeks are a given). And EVERY YEAR, when all is said and done... I need a beverage and an aspirin.

Again this year, December 1st comes and I am definitely ready to shift gears and I'm giggly with anticipation. Cocoa was on the stove, the Hanukkah station was on Sirius, Polar Express was on the tv, and pink was on Nathan's cheeks... because he was doing all the work. I did mostly nothing to contribute. I didn't try to manage or make anything perfect. I didn't tell the kids where to put their ornaments or to turn off Disney XD and get back to the regularly scheduled program. And when ornaments broke, the lights didn't work, and Polar Express turned to yet another episode of Jessie, I did nothing. Maybe missing that hint of Christmas magic, but also missing stress. I'll take it. Side note: Walker only eats the ornaments that have Layla's face on them. I'm not sure if that means he likes her the most or the least? Weird.

Last week's snow day gave us a nudge into magical territory. We actually woke up to a couple of inches in our yard, the kids were dressed and out the door before breakfast. We had peppermint ice cream in our hot chocolate, the Grinch, and a Christmas tree re-do. Magic :)

No broken ornaments on this tree!

We've already kicked off our season with a few Christmas gatherings and the girls' performances in The Nutcracker. So proud of both of my dancers!

HERE COMES CHRISTMAS!!