Christmas Eve Traditions

I love Christmas Eve! We have several traditions that we love to do with our girls. Since we don't live near family and usually we are with them until after Christmas, we spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with our girls, enjoying this time with just them. We always go out to dinner, then head to our Christmas Eve service at church and then come back home and they open their Christmas PJ's. It's so much fun and a tradition I hope we continue for years and years to come!

This year, we went to Red Lobster and had a yummy meal. It's probably Macie's favorite place to eat - and one of my favorites, too! Our church service was really nice (although I spent about 1/2 of it out in the hallway with a loud 1 year old - HA! It was like a mini-nursery out in the hall, too, lots of restless babies!). Afterwards, we came home, let the girls open their PJ's and read the Christmas story with the older two. We want our girls to remember that while the gifts, dinner out, visiting with family and friends and all the excitement of this night is fun, the most important part of the whole season is Jesus! Without Him, there'd be no reason to celebrate. We are so thankful that He came here to us, as a baby, but even more thankful that that same baby lived a perfect life and died a painful death on the cross for our sins. Because of that, we get to spend eternity with him in Heaven someday! So thankful for a Saviour that loves us so much! I pray that you, too, know how much He loves you and that you have asked him to be your personal savior! There's no greater gift!!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Closet Hoarder

If you know me well, you know a couple of things.

1. I am an anti-hoarder - like, it's so bad that my kids know that I throw EVERYTHING away so they have a box that they have to keep things in that they don't want to end up in the trash can. They come home from school with something, I look at it and in the trash it goes. (I know - Mother of the Year).

2. While I like things clean, I am not very organized. I want to be, I love the look of organized homes, pantries, cabinets, etc., but I just lack something that organized people have.

So, last night, I'm texting my friend Holly (we kind of have this habit of night time texting - and it's always random and hilarious. I joke with her that she's my late-night rapid fire texting buddy). Anyway, I'm texting Holly, and somehow we get on the subject of houses/cleaning/organizing/weird OCD traits, and during our text convo, I tell her that my house is ALWAYS picked up before bed. Things are put away, dishes are done, toys picked up, bedrooms cleaned. I can't stand to wake up to a mess. Then I proceed to tell her that while I do all of that, she should see my closet/pantry. It's awful. Unorganized. Hideous. Picture the most beautiful closet you've ever seen. Now, picture the exact opposite of that. That's my closet. We laughed (via lots of LOL's) and sent each other a few pictures of weird things in our home and then we said goodnight. Yes, this is really what we do.

Fast forward to this afternoon. I got thinking about our texts and went in my closet to take a real good look. I was disturbed. My base boards in there - never and I mean in almost 7 years - been dusted. Piles of junk. Shoes EVERYWHERE. Boxes, that I thought I needed to save, still in there about 5 years later. A high school duffle bag that I used when I cheered (with my name on it) - yep, still up there. It was embarrassing. Something had to be done. Immediately. So, I go to the kitchen, grab a bunch of trash bags, and I went to town. I whipped out my vacuum and all the fancy tools that people normally don't use and I cleaned every nook and cranny in that place. It still wouldn't make the pages of a magazine, but it's better. I don't fear the Hoarders TV show and a group of friends showing up at my front door for an intervention anymore. I walk in there and feel so happy. I filled our giant trash can today with just stuff from the closet. I was on a mission. Landfills don't scare me. I'm filling the land with a bunch of old junk and I like it.

I expect Green Peace at my door soon. I may need an intervention after all.

Before

And AFTER

Real Life at the Cash House

So, I could write a post on something precious that my girls did or said that made me feel like I was the mother of the year, doing everything right all the time. But, it's real life here. And sometimes it's just funny (and a little gross). So, here's the conversation I overheard last night between Macie and Mike after he had already tucked them in bed for the night.

Macie: "Daddy, Maddie keeps tooting and it really reeks!"
Mike: "Well, Macie, what do you want me to do?"
Macie: "I'm just worried that if she keeps tooting that she's gonna poop in the bed!"
Mike: "Macie, she's not gonna poop in the bed, but if you are that worried about it, go get in your own bed."

Around 10 p.m., I went in to check on them before I went to bed and Macie had moved to the top bunk. She wasn't taking any chances.

Just keeping it real. Toots, poop and all. It's how we roll. :)

Staying Busy at Christmastime

Every year I'm surprised at just how busy we are between Thanksgiving and Christmas and how fast that month flies by! We have had a lot going on: We traveled the week of Thanksgiving to visit Mike's family, put up our Christmas tree, had our SS class Christmas party, visited with friends, had sleepovers, birthday parties, church programs, a Christmas parade, MOPS and so much more and it's only the 2nd week of December! WHEW! But, even with all of that, I wouldn't change a thing! We are so blessed to have family that we can go visit and great friends here that we love spending time with. At some point, I'll finish my Christmas shopping. This week, I'm determined to make it happen. :)

Here's a bit of our life this past month in picture form!

Thanksgiving with Mike's family

Putting up the tree

SS Class Christmas Party (Minus all the husbands)

Fun with friends!!

I don't have pictures of some of the other things we've been doing, but I have to say, we've had a wonderful holiday season so far. Looking forward to the next couple of weeks and praying that all of you have a blessed Christmas!

My thoughts for today

So, Albert Pujols is leaving the Cardinals for another team and a lot of money. And people are MAD. Here's what has me fired up:

This is a baby that Mike held and loved on during his mission trip to Haiti in October. This child was going to be thrown away - YES, in a trash can, by his mother. He was starving, can't walk and needs someone to just love him.

And we are mad about baseball.

Perspective, people.