Christmas Traditions

When I was first married my mom gave me a book to read that was a self help happy marriage book. In that book it suggested to fill your home with pictures of you and your spouse, your family etc. Things that depict the good times and the love you have shared over the years. As my family grew the importance of family traditions to help create some of those moments became obvious. So I made a concentrated effort to build family traditions. Family traditions don't have to be huge expensive productions, just something your family does that holds some meaning every year. For us we have a few for the other Holidays. We have always watched fireworks together as a family for the 4th of July, we go to church on Easter and then my mom and/or dad's for an Easter egg hunt for the kids and dinner on Easter, we carve pumpkins and I bake the seeds for Halloween, but Christmas though has the most traditions. Every since Lizard and Bear were small we have decorated and baked cookies together. We all look forward to the fun and the yummy treats. Another tradition is going to go look at Christmas lights as often as possible. Now this has gotten a little more costly thanks to gas prices but still a fave. We load up, turn on Christmas music, sometimes bring along some cocoa and go. We look in some of the neighborhoods known for putting up lights and go to the actual displays as well. Coyote remembered this tradition from last year and when she saw the lights going up around a business center near us before Thanksgiving she squealed with excitement with the anticipation of going to look at lights.   We of course had to explain that it wasn't time yet, that they were just working on it. We have gone on a few spins now and she is just in love with them. She says it looks like candy. Another tradition is that every year we pick a day, usually Christmas eve, and spend all day watching our fave Christmas movies. On Christmas Eve night my husband tells the story of Christs birth and we have cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus. Then that night the kids are allowed to open 1 gift. We of course have Santa for the little ones but he only gives small things in their stockings. No bikes from Santa here. Christmas morning my husbands parents come over and we have homemade Blueberry coffee cake ( I rarely make it outside of Christmas morning making it an extra special treat) and open presents. Then off to the races of going to my mom's house and then my dad's. These traditions are small but are something brings us together. They remind us of the joy of being a family that is sometimes is over looked in the day to day of life.This year I am wanting to add creating awesome DIY gifts for my kids to give to their cousins.  Of course I am using Pinterest to inspire this new tradition. Well that is all for now thank you for reading.

A Full Thanksgiving

I had an amazing Thanksgiving Day.  My hubby, kids and I all went to my Sister SM,s house. She lives in a lovely Victorian home in a gorgeous small town which just added tot he the feel of the day. I brought green bean casserole. Which I freaked about having enough with 32 people attending. Yes I come from a large family and it gets bigger on the holidays when we get with the extended family. It turned out well I brought just enough I think. We played an odd game of charades with things like a "road"  and "riding a bike" as things to act out. We all had a very good laugh over it. I am always amazed at how big my niece and nephews have gotten,especially the ones I don't get to see often. Like my my nephew who is a  little than my oldest. He was very tall and dressed like the Marlboro man. To which my family graciously pointed out to him a few times. We are a family of hard times and the more we like you the worse it will get for but it can be bad if we don't like you too. You just never know with us I guess. We took family photos and that was fun. I did miss going to my dad's this year. That seems to have been a misunderstanding that was fixed and won't happen again, I hope. My husband and I have so much to be Thankful for and the day just pointed out so much of it. The day ended with me unexpectedly going with some of my sisters Black Friday shopping. My first time ever and it was a lot of fun. I achieved my mission of securing a little chair for my niece for my sister while at walmart. Scared my sister L who thought I was a nut taking a toy straight out of her arm, I was actually grabbing so she could grab a bigger item and she didn't hear me tell it was me. Then we went to our outlet mall. I was awesome. We froze outside for about 30min. but the convo was well worth it. The outlet mall was lit up so pretty and it had fake snow it all most transported you to another place. Then we grabbed Mickey D's  and laughed & talked  as everyone was dropped off for the night. Then I rested with my very sweet hubby for a little while before we went to bed. A very full day but a lot of fun. I will share the pictures later. Thanks for reading. 

A Weekend in Review

This past weekend was full of fun and excitement. We have a very dear friend who came over and stayed the weekend with us. His son and my son are good friends , so he came over as well.  It was a good B-day sleep over for bear and my kids cousins Jax and Ruth came over as well for bunny and coyote. Friday was a crazy and full night. There was chatter and giggles until 4 am. Bear and Coyote had a Birthday party this Saturday as well.  We held the party after Bear and Lizard got back from a community out reach they had to got to because their drama group was preforming in it. So it was a later party but it was fun.  My sister S and her hubby, my mom and stepdad, my hubbies parents, our friends EB and Jeffery, the kids friends and some of their cousins all came.  My house is tiny so it was a very full event but lots of smiles and laughter. Bunny got any early present from my mom and stepdad so she was excited too. We had church on Sunday. I was so tired from the previous two days and the hubby was in a lot of pain on top of being tired, but some how we not only got to church but we actually didn't have to rush things like we sometimes we have to. The whole day it was so moving and wonderful. My hubby and I both have been striving for the end goal and for growth in ourselves. Sunday night we just crashed. We watched some of our fave shows and just relaxed. It was nice calm way to end a fun whirl wind of a weekend. This week is bunnies b-day and this weekend is going to be a whirl wind too. I have been making some moves in a side business. I have and I will be teaching a class on using things like twitter and Facebook to help grow your small business. I came up with the class after not only doing for my and other people's business but also after leading a few class type things before on the topic. It really does take a lot of work to come up with the right info ( because Facebook is constantly changing), coming up with the instructions they can take home to help them remember ,etc.  I also have some other new business moves coming up. I am really hopeful that will work out well. Everything so far seems to falling in line. Well  thank you for reading.

Fall fun

 A little late but here are some pics from our fun during Halloween and our fall outing. Unfortunately the pic of their costumes didn't turn out, but we did have some fun.

Carving pumpkins is a tradition.

I like this pic. that my hubby took a picture of me

they were just to cute together Big O and Coyote. They loved riding together

brother bear

Walking back with our friends after a fun little walk

sunny bunny

love this pic of coyote

lizard  around the firepit. We had a really good time around the firepit cooking smores and visiting.

treasure hunting.

most of the group.

 As you see we had a really good time. Well thanks for looking and reading.