2013 kicked our butts. The first half wasn’t too bad, but the 2nd was rough. Illnesses, acts of God and unemployment all hit our family within an 8 week period. All these things sucked- and some of them will continue right into 2014. But despite all the bad, we were bound and determined that the good would shine through this holiday season. And it really has!

The Christmas Pageant

The only time the Christmas songs aren’t on in our house is if we’re asleep. The kids are more enthralled with Buddy, our Elf on the Shelf, then any year before. Tales of Santa and Buddy and the reindeer are all that we talk about about and videos from Santa yesterday cemented how closely he keeps track of us- especially when the Bean found out she hasn’t been good enough for the Nice List yet.

Best of all, when we talk about this past year, my kids don’t talk about the stressful stuff. They remember our trip to FL last Feb, learning how to play Uno, reading Harry Potter and going to the Outer Banks and learning how to play laser tag with their cousins. They remember how fun it was to go camping in the rain- not that the Hubs was sick the whole time with mono & the flu. When they think about our shed being destroyed, they don’t think about the headache of dealing with insurance, they think about how awesome the tree was that fell and how now there is a tree fort in its spot.  Yup, I did lose my job and the budget cuts we made stink- but if you ask my kids about it, they’ll talk to you more about how I pick them up from school every day on time then they do the fact that we don’t go out to eat anymore. If that’s not a life full of blessings, I don’t know what is.

To all those who celebrate, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas! We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season full of family, friends and more laughs then you can count!