A Merry Christmas Message

 Skyping with Grandma and Papa

 Cookies!

 Master cookie decorator and mess maker

 These are already all gone by the way

So proud! She wouldn't stop or take a break until they were all done!

I want to start off by saying that Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. Growing up my mom and dad always made it a big deal too. I remember making cookies with mom. We always made a ton and I still make the same ones that were always my favorite. My dad always made a big deal about the tree. I will never forget the year he decided that the tree needed a color theme and wanted a tree that was blue and silver/white, with ONE strand of tinsel on each branch! Katy and I joked that it was a department store looking tree,but it was beautiful. After that it was always something like that-red/white, blue, red/green. To this day my tree is pretty much always red/silver/white. I do love a blue themed tree, but my collection of ornaments hasn't grown to that level yet. I love that this year Lily has really fell in love with the holiday. She loves the tree and everyday rearranges the ornaments. The advent calenders are a hit and the elf Kyle has yet to disappoint.  And of course she loves the cookies and the rest of the treats.

With all that being said the last couple of years have been hard for me. I miss my family so much. I miss the huge Christmas Eve dinner at Aunt Jill's and Christmas dinner at Mom and Dad's house and seeing how many people we can fit into that small little house. And I miss playing games with everyone after dinner. And I miss meeting up with friends that are also home that can make me laugh so hard it hurts.

You might be asking yourself if you miss it so much why do you live 2000 miles away? I too ask myself that same question and believe me we are trying our damnedest to get back in the Wisco area. If I could go back in time I would tell my 25/26 year old self to think about what it is going to be like when you have a family. I don't regret moving here. Shane and I were on our life adventure together. We fell in love here, got engaged here and made our beautiful family here. Our intention was to always move "eventually". We didn't anticipate a housing crisis/disaster. We didn't anticipate how much we would need our families. We didn't anticipate needing our friends companionship so much. We had each other and that was enough. 98% of the time it is enough. I have a house full of blessings. But I find myself feeling lonely sometimes for all the people who love me and mine so much. So the message here is don't take your family for granted. If you have them close scream with joy from the rooftops!

Disclaimer: This post might be stemming from lack of sleep and the tantrum I threw at 3:30 am last night (foot stomping, snot filled sobbing kind of tantrum) because a certain little 8 month old wouldn't go back to sleep and didn't want to be held, fed or rocked. And another certain 34 year old husband just stayed sleeping