Christmas--FINALLY!

Well, we have seen Christmas come and gone. We have seen the New Year come and not go, but at least off to a good start. I'm going to be honest with you. This Christmas season was so busy and hectic, I have to say, I didn't really get a chance to sit back and enjoy it. I enjoyed Christmas day, but I literally didn't get to sit and rest until Christmas Day. Between decorating, shopping, traveling, entertaining, coordinating gifts and food for an adopted family for church and all the other little stresses of the holidays, I didn't get to enjoy it like I really wanted to. I didn't get to bake Christmas cookies or take in Christmas music or lights or all the little things that the holidays can offer. I know, everyone is busy this time of year, but its so sad to me to think that our kids will only be this age for one Christmas, and I didn't really get to take it all in. I made a promise to myself after feeling this way, that I will never be this busy for the holidays. I don't want to get lost in the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I want to enjoy them with my family. I mean, I was so tired and worn out, I was so sloppy with the kids gifts. I would wrap them and just leave them in the office, under a sheet and hope that the kids didn't see them, since they were the ones from Santa. That's pretty bad. Never again. So excuse me for not writing any sooner about Christmas, I was burnt out on the whole holiday season (by the way, no, this is not the Grinch writing this, just one tired momma!).
Even though I just got finished complaining about how busy I was, I did have fun and tried to take in as much as I could. One of the first weekends in December our family and my parents went up to Jeff City for a weekend to see friends and do Christmas w/ family up that way. I do regret that I didn't take more pictures, but we did have a great time. As we get older, our traditions change and this year was one that was a turning point for that change. A time to start new traditions and hold on the memories of the old ones. Because of those changes, we did Christmas at my parents trailer with my Grandma Bowen and my great aunt Dee. It was so good to see them again, and to spend some time with them.

Dee opening some gifts.

Grandma opening some gifts.

I guess they were both good girls this year to

get some gifts! :)

Mom and Dad not opening gifts, I guess we

all know what that means....

It was funny, after we all opened gifts, Adriana was laying on the floor playing with something and we looked down and saw this....

Adriana had a Christmas bow stuck to her rear end, and had no idea, it was so cute!

After we did Christmas with Grandma and Dee, we went to see my Grandma and Grandpa Veltrop. We had a good time visiting with them. Unfortunately, my camera was packed away and I didn't get any shots with them.

It was a good trip and great to see family that we haven't seen in so long.

Quickly, Christmas approached and was here before we knew it. Adriana was fun this year. She is at the age where she is starting to know who Santa is and to know that it is Jesus' birthday, but still too young to know that Christmas is only one day and not several days. It was fun to hear her randomly sing Christmas songs. See her excitement as Christmas movies came on, such as Frosty the Snowman, The Grinch (or the Grouch, as she called him), and the Santa Clause.
Playing Santa, for some reason, I found kind of overwhelming, and I think it was because I was just so worn out. I tried my hardest to hide the wrapping paper that Santa was using, but made the mistake of leaving a roll of Tinkerbell paper out one day. She saw it and on Christmas morning, she saw the gifts wrapped in that paper and told Ryan, "Daddy, Santa and Mommy have the same wrapping paper". Ooops! I just feel like I slacked on the job and I'm glad she is too young to put two and two together. Anyway, here is the gifts after Santa came and visited.

Paxton, was obviously too young to know what was going on, but he enjoyed the gifts that he got. He was cute to watch toddling around, playing with all the new stuff. Adriana was ripping into the gifts left and right. She was more than willing to help her brother open his too.

Christmas afternoon, my parents and brother came over for the remainder of the day. We had a fun afternoon. We busted out a good ol' game of Mexican Train Domino's, we had a great time.


After a nice dinner, we opened gifts with my parents and brother.

Paxton loved the snowman my mom got from my dad. He kept giving him hugs and kisses.

This last picture is kind of a random picture. I started giving the kids ornaments each year that represents them for that year, and so I thought it would be fun for them to each have a tree in their rooms with their ornaments on it. I unfortunately couldn't find a tree for Paxton's room (I'm still hoping to find one somewhere) but Adriana LOVED this idea. I let her put on her own ornaments and tried not the imperfections bother me. She was so proud of it and was tickled to death to have her own tree up.

If this blog entry seems negative, I'm trying not to make it seem that way. I just don't want to regret another year, like I did this year. Christmas is about the birth of our Savior and we can get so wrapped up in the gifts, cookies, decorations and all that, that we forget what its all about. Christmas is a precious time of year, we need to savor it for what it is, and this year, I feel like missed out.

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas holiday full of wonderful memories and that your 2011 will be super blessed!