What an absolutely beautiful Christmas season it has been. This holiday was just beautiful. There was so much love, so much fellowship, and so much genuine enjoyment and merriment. What a blessing it is and was to be with family. The Friday before Christmas, I grabbed the kids and we went to Walmart so that the kids could buy each other Christmas gifts.
The rules were simple. You have $20 to spend for a total of three gifts—one of each of your siblings. Guys, it was such a beautiful process watching the kids walk through the store putting serious thought into each other’s gift. I allowed Bug to go off by himself and then come back to me with his concealed in his cart. I took baby A. and Honeybee with me and the girls had so much fun selecting gifts.
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| Super excited to find this gift for her brother |
On Saturday morning, my mother came from up North to visit her grandbabies and do what all grandparents do…spoil lol. My mother is a nurse and her schedule often has her picking up shifts on holidays, so we make sure to get together early when we can. She bought TONS of Christmas bags with her and S. and I took them upstairs to prep for wrapping. Because we knew my mom wanted the joy of seeing the kids open at least one gift in her presence, we allowed the kids to do just that. They were thrilled.
S. and I promised my mom that we would video chat her on Christmas morning when the kids opened gifts and she could see them open the remainder of their gifts together. Later, the kids hung out with their grandmother watching the Christmas Chronicles (if you’ve never seen it, do so. It’s a cute movie) and eating bacon cheeseburgers and fries. While S. was out with Bug grabbing some additional food, I told my mother that we were expecting (S. and I had agreed we would share with family this weekend) and she was ecstatic. She also claimed she knew because she “kept having dreams about life” and “knew daggone well” it wasn’t her lol. We told her the kids would find out the next day, but knew she wouldn’t be there, so we wanted to make sure she was in the loop as well. Yay!!!
Sunday was my calm before the storm day. After wishing my mother goodbye on her return trip to NJ, the family and I went to church for Sunday services. It was a beautiful service and we left the church with high spirits and joy. S. and the kids were pretty tired after staying up so late and rising so early, so they decided to have “Quiet Time” in the house. I decided to take advantage of the lull in the house to start baking. I baked four sweet potato pies, prepped and seasoned 2 racks of barbeque ribs, and prepared the brine for the Christmas turkey. I also made four trips to the store. I also “Christmas-sized” the remaining parts of the house adding wreaths and appropriate Christmas décor touches for the dinner planned the next day. By the time I was finished with everything hours later, I was quite ready for my bed ☺.
