When I’m old and grey, I will not miss the cookies I never baked yesterday.
When I’m sitting in my rocker with my cup of tea,
I will not wish I had spent more time decorating my living room.
When I’m wrinkled and stooped over, I will not say,
“If only I had cleaned my house more often.”
Instead, I hope I do not find myself wishing for more time spent with my children . . .
more fun in the snow and the sleds . . .
more afternoons of hot chocolate and games . . .
I want no regrets.
So that is why sometimes I stop and refocus on what is so incredibly precious to me. My family.
This Christmas vacation was something we all needed desperately! We all needed time away from work, school, mail parcels, church responsibilities, and a messy house. Surprisingly, we almost accomplished escaping all of those – at least for a day or two – except for the messy house. It stayed with us, but we braced ourselves and put up with it!
Who wants to clean when an entire giant field of snow is calling your name? Who really wants to bake cookies when it is such a total blast dumping your 13-year-old off his sled behind your four-wheeler? Oh yeah. That was fun! Of course, he dumped me off of my sled too.
We did do some work. But you won’t find many pictures of those times here. Vacation is supposed to be just that – a vacation. Work will come in January!
Warning: This is a MANY PICTURES post! In fact, after uploading around 40 pics *gasp* I realized I’d better make this into more than one post. So now we begin a series . . . again.
Let the games begin.
Um. I think they were going rock climbing . . . probably up the staircase.
I am such a softie when it comes to Little Tykes in Fuzzy Pajamas.
“I suppose you’re going to tell me you that you have no idea how that hole got there, son?”
We love us some Christmas candy. Yes, we do.
Ornery mutt.
God makes the best kind of Christmas trees . . . with pristine, sparkling snow.
You’re a little on the short end, boys.
So desperate for snow you almost roll it all up into snowmen!
Ornery mutt #2.
Christmas Eve and all its fun goodies!
Grandma sent the kids some Jonathan Park cds and book – something that’s been on our wishlist for a while.
So many slumber parties we lost count!
I told Lowell that I wished I could be a kid again. However, the night I tried sleeping in the living room with them (because of a fussy baby) I also realized some of them, because of colds, sounded like a freight train headed down the track! Not like I remembered childhood sleepovers. There were no freight trains back then . . . or maybe I was sleeping too soundly to hear them.
The racetrack took over my kitchen.
I’m even more of a softie for warm, sleeping babies!
Now these next few pictures must be viewed in quick succession. They are trying to do the “death crawl” from the movie “Facing the Giants”. They weren’t entirely successful, but sure made for great entertainment!
AND . . . down he went.
Dad treated all of us to several different recipes of his homemade kefir. Strawberry became my favorite!
I’d like for you all to say good-bye to Mr. Fat Squishy . . . and hello to Dallas! I really don’t want to upset any male egos who might read this in ten years – so I have decided that our sweet Mr. Fat Squishy has officially outgrown that “baby name” and will henceforth, in 2015 and beyond, be just Dallas.
Now let me go find a tissue. I’m never good at handling moments like this.
I’ll be back tomorrow . . . unless I’m still in denial then.
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Suan James Fife says
I always love your family pictures. Looks like you had a wonderful Christmas .
Living In The Shoe says
We sure did! Hope you did too.
Suan James Fife says
We did ! Thanks.