Christmas 2015

Last year (meaning 2014), Christmas was so so busy that I was kind of sad about it. Our lives didn't really slow down until the kids got off school (about a week before Christmas). As I thought about how to slow us down this year (meaning 2015), I wasn't sure--dropping out of all church and school activities seemed unrealistic (and un-fun in its own way). The only real resolution I could make was to expect it to be crazy until the kids got out of school and just accept that. This new attitude mostly worked.

Which is good because the two weeks before they got out were filled with an activity pretty much every weekday night. Elizabeth had a choir and a band concert, Mark had a choir concert, Emma had a dance recital. Every Wednesday the kids had church. Mark had a campout (why? what's wrong with January?).We had our piano recitals and the yearly creche at the church. The choir sang for church and I had a solo (and of course practices for it). Truly, I don't know how to slow it down, especially if you're musical. Because Christmas is musical people busy season.

Emma after a performance at the nursing home. She was giving the old people hugs and I thought it was incredibly sweet and brave. 

Mark's concert, which was great. 

Why do I not have a picture of Elizabeth's concert? I probably do somewhere, but not sure where. #terrible parent

At her band concert they got to get one parent to come up and then all us parents had to learn a song. She picked me and everyone thought it was sooo hilarious how terrible the parent band sounded. 

Anyway, I mostly dealt pretty well with the pre-Christmas busyness. Minus one major blooper where I got the recital time wrong for our joint piano recital and told all my students to be at the church an hour later than I should have and didn't realize until I got a text saying something along the lines of, "Um, are you coming?" I was so so upset and so so angry at myself. Luckily the other piano teacher just had her students play first and then by the time mine showed up, they were about done and we played (we usually sort of intersperse our students). She was uber gracious as were the parents of my students, which I'm also super grateful before because I was so upset with myself that one irate parent would have thrown me into despair, but everyone was lovely. It was still a super crappy day.

The week before Christmas, we went to my sister's house (secretly). My brother-in-law had called asking us to come and offering to pay for gas. It would be his present to his wife, my sister Rebecca. We picked the kids up from school Friday and drove until the middle of the night. We hit ice in West Virginia (super un-anticipated since it'd been very warm in Evansville) and we almost got in an accident and were just honestly blessed not to--we slipped right between two cars who were also slipping around. Kip's driving and, frankly God's blessings, pulled us through. We got to Bec's house at nearly 2am and then we called Troy to let us in. Hilariously, he was confused about where on earth we were because he had thought we were coming the next night. So, really, it was a surprise for both of them. In the morning Rebecca came down the stairs ready to head to Walmart and there was a random child in her living room. She only saw Elizabeth from the back and thought maybe a neighborhood kid had wandered into the house. It was pretty fun when she realized it was us. She said all she wanted for Christmas was to be surprised, so it was really fun.

Sweetest picture ever of Barry and Kayla

Cheesers by the Roanoke star

The star. Savannah really wanted a picture with it:).

Sisters

Cousins

I was glad we went because the wonderful thing about being not at home is that you're forced to just chill and relax. And we did. My brother Barry and his family got there later that day and then my sister Katie and her family got there late Sunday. Surprises for all and that was fun too. We made tons of cookies and toured their neighborhood and went to the Roanoke star. We always eat the most delicious food together and played games once the kids were asleep.

Then we came home and Kip headed back to work and we finished up Christmas-y things. I don't even know what we did, but it seems like it was pretty pleasant.

Christmas morning Kip stayed awake while we opened gifts and then crashed (he'd worked the night before. Also to all the alcoholic drug addict whoevers that called and called and called and kept him running all night Christmas Eve and Christmas night--seriously, pull yourselves together and stop shooting people and, for heaven's sake, go to sleep).

So I happened to find matching footie pj's for the girls and I kind of splurged on them. I was shopping with my friend and she was like, "How much longer will you be able to get them to wear matching footie pajamas?" Or be able to find matching footie pajamas for that matter. So I went for it. I mean, um, the Christmas elves did. 

Cats love Christmas

I thought it was a nicely balanced Christmas as far as gifts--enough to seem amazing without being overwhelming and Dad sent money that we used on a few "experience" gifts like skating lessons and stuff. I love things like that.