Anyway, I am trying to get into Christmas this year but it's been tough. This is the first Christmas season I have ever had to work since my first year of marriage and it has been a very different experience for sure. Usually I go to great lengths to get the place looking lovely for Christmas. I have so much cute stuff that I've collected over the years but this year I just didn't have the energy or the desire to be honest. I've been so busy working 15+ hours of overtime for the last four weeks and everything was down in the garage which meant a lot of trips up and down 3 flights of stairs.
I did get the tree up, missing some decorations, and I just found the stockings today. I swear if we didn't have the kids I'd probably have just said this Christmas I'm not doing any of it. Okay well really that's a lie cause I do love doing it for me too. So things are more sparse this year and I haven't had the time to keep things looking nice but I do remember how blessed I am and that makes up for a lot. It's easy to forget what really matters at this time of year, which is too bad because that really is what this time of year is meant to be all about.
Today while I was wrapping the girls gifts I was feeling pretty down about this holiday I love so much. I was just thinking about how things never go how I imagine they should and how much I miss my family and how differently Eric's family celebrates Christmas. I know this year is not going to go how I want and that really is more upsetting to me than it should be. So I'm going to try very hard to just relax and not worry about how things "should" be. The girls are going to enjoy Christmas and we are going to spend time with people we care about and that is so much more important than finding the perfect paper and ribbon for wrapping or having a big special gift from Santa or stressing about getting the perfect photo of the girls by the tree for a Christmas card. Life is too short and time too precious to stress out over things like that.
So this year I wrapped the gifts without fancy ribbon and tags and you know what, I'm okay with it! I thought I wouldn't be but I am and I saved a lot of time and money. I do enjoy pretty things and I think it's good to do a little splurging on the little things sometimes, but this year we just cannot afford it. I didn't do Christmas cards either. I didn't even do a nice photo. I did get this one of the girls tonight that I wanted to share:
Don't think it's Christmas card worthy LOL but it's pretty true to life. The kids in their white trash best, messy faces and tangled hair. I didn't even take it with the good camera, just used Jenna's cheapie point and shoot. Mom, I thought you'd enjoy that. I was thinking about how we had talked about this and I just thought, I'm just gonna take the picture and who cares how it looks.
Anyway, I don't have time to write anymore. Gotta get the girls in bed. Take care.
