First, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Our weekend was busy — full of family, and good {make that great} food, games, driving, rest, and being grateful for our Savior’s birth. Of course, over the weekend I made several observations regarding what works, what needs to change, and things that made me laugh.
Here’s my post Christmas miscellany.
1} A Higher Dollar Amount Does NOT Guarantee Present Enjoyment. Case in point. The Friday before Christmas I still had some stockings to stuff. Stockings for a family of nine can easily break the bank — so my hubby suggested I check out the dollar store. While there I picked up a whoopie cushion for Elijah. Which became his favorite gift. Go figure.
2} Watch out where you sit. Now that we have a whoopie cushion in the house one must be very careful if Elijah comes by and says momma stand up quick for me and now sit down. And then laughs. Then when you sit down make sure you sit down very dramatically as to cause the four year old of yours to laugh even harder.
3} Gluten Free Cookies Rock. Especially my chocolate brownies with the mint frosting. I might have had to taste test several of them. Well, make it more than a couple. Just look at that very full plate of those brownies sitting there. Sigh…
4} Read my post at The Post. I wrote about not cleaning up the Christmas mess. I am going to need to print it out and remind myself of it today — as I trip over new toys, find homes for new clothes, deal with left-over cookies, and exchange some presents. Such a gift to be blessed with all of that new stuff — that’s what I need to remember. Click this title to hop over there — Why You Shouldn’t Clean up the Christmas Mess.
5} Pictures always Win. My family {brother, sisters, nephew, and my brother’s awesome dog – Leo} gathered together in October, took a picture, and had it printed on canvas for my parents. In the process, we managed to snag a couple extra pics of my kids, my sister and her son, and some silly shots of me with my siblings. These pictures? A goldmine of meaningful presents. The pic below? My family.
6} Case in Point. My father-in-law’s response when he opened the present of his grandkids {my kids} in a beautiful framed print. I love that he loves us so so much. And we love him just as much in return. 🙂
7} The Netbook. Remember that picture with me holding the little Acer Netbook? Well, that was my parents — which they let me borrow when I went to Relevant and then let me use for a bit {a long bit — our desktop is now a paperweight desktop}. Yesterday, at their house, they blessed our family with a new netbook {I don’t have a picture yet} – this is a HUGE blessing. I use it for writing posts, for homeschooling, and now my parents have theirs back. 😉
8} Favorite Picture from 2011. My friend, Sam, from Sam’s Noggin, and I are hosting a link-up where you can pick your favorite picture from 2011. I know, I know, one picture? How on earth do you choose? So get your thinking caps on and decide which picture you’d pick {and I’d let it slide if you did more than one} and come on back to link up. I’ve included the linky code if you want to grab it and write your post today — it will go live tomorrow morning. 🙂
9} Games. Books. And Rest. That’s what’s on my plan for the rest the day. We’ve got some really fun new games — including the deluxe edition of Apples to Apples {we love that game} — that I want to play with my family. Yesterday, at my parents we played Dicecapades — equally fun and crazy. Playing with my family is certainly a favorite thing! And eating those cookies…
10} Social Media. I took two days off. No tweets, facebooks, blogging, email checking or anything. It was strange to have everything so “silent” and yet it was so incredibly needed. Make sure to intentionally do this in your life. So today, I’m trying to ease back into the online world — slowly — and that’s okay. You want to make sure to capture the real moments, the wonder in life, and often that means intentionally stepping back.
How about you? How was your Christmas?
Any new fun family games that you must share with me?
linking up with my sweet friend, Carissa.
11 comments
Such a great post! It was so nice meeting you at Relevant this past October. Have a blessed 2012!
Melissa
apples to apples is my favorite game 😀
You had a wonderful Christmas! A squishy ball from Dollar Tree as a hit at my house.
Love what you did with your pictures! Thanks for sharing your holiday joy. Blessings!
look at that sweet boy Samuel!!! and Elijah’s whoppie cushion smile is priceless. my kids always like the simple things most. reminds me i need to be MORE like them!
woohoo! for a new computer! yippee. so happy for you.
your family picture is gorgeous. it’s fun to see more of your family.
i love the picture of your father-in-law looking at the picture of you guys. it’s absolutely precious. he sure has got LOVE written all over that face!
one photo?!!! whoa! that is a toughy. i’ll have to dig through. : )
love ya!
What a lovely wrap-up 🙂 Sounds like you all had a blessed Christmas. Some of my favorite gifts to give {and receive} were not expensive 🙂
Those mint brownies look really good! Makes me hungry!
The Lord will always be there to get you through whatever you have to face. Praying!
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
Prayer Bears
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Such a beautiful family you have!
xo Shane
I agree. It doesn’t take large amounts of money to bring joy to our children’s faces. And the gluten free cookies do look yummy! I linked to your post about not cleaning up the Christmas mess in my post yesterday. I still haven’t even began. I’m off all week. Maybe tomorrow I will start. Blessings to you my friend.
ps. I’m grabbing your button to display on my site, hope you don’t mind 🙂
You have a such a gift of writing, i’ve said it before, you blow me away!
you have just a way with putting it all into words for us 🙂