InstaFriday: Christmas Edition

We really do. 

I hope you had/are having a Merry Christmas, friends.

Behold: Christmas pictures.

Thank goodness they only come once a year

because no one would survive it any more frequently.

Kari took these photos and she is amazing 

because my kids were not at their best awful. Of course.

We bribed Slurpees and threatened time outs 

and begged and pleaded.

Joshy had been cranky all day and Jack gets nervous and

 has this self-protective scowl when he's uncomfortable.

Lovely for pictures.

I seriously can't believe these turned out so well.I love them.

With very little to work with.

They were awfully behaved.

I'm not being humble. 

it was just one of those days.

She completely captured their personalities.

Jack: a little old man

serious, always thinking, curious, skeptical, slow to warm up

Joshy: the cutest little clown you ever did see

silly, carefree, social, so squeezable, and grumpy at the drop of a hat.

Stop looking at me.

Anyway, Kari, you are amazing and we are so thankful for your talent!

And for the rest of the holiday... 

We forgot about Santa until December 23rd, 

along with everyone else who forgot to see him. 

My mom and I took turns waiting in line and strolling the kids around the mall.

Jealous much?

But we were on a mission, and we got it. Ha!

That's all I have to say.

They look like they're praying here.

Joshy: Hey Santa, let me tell you what this whole Christmas thing is really about. 

Can I pray for you? Let's all hold hands and bow our heads...

This was the best attempt we could get of the kids in front of the tree. 

Thank you Joshy.

 I'm kind of impressed with myself this year. 

It's the first year I've manged to have decent pajamas 

on the kids for pictures on Christmas morning.

It was the Christmas of 1,000 trains. 

Jack likes them. Josh is obssessed.

He has only put down his little plastic Thomas once in three days.

And that was to take a bath.

Christmas with the cousins...

Josh is trying to kiss and hug Kayleigh.

and here is one of my favorite pics from Christmas.

I don't think daddy ever stopped building on Christmas day

Joshy has to help. Always.

We had some visitors at our Christmas breakfast

and we got a special delivery from Texas. The best! 

Thank you Auntie Cami & Uncle Steve.

One of Jacks favorite things to do at Christmas is go by the singing house. 

It really sings. It's amazing. The kids love it.

I haven't created anything for fun in a long while and my mind and heart 

are about ready to burst open with thoughts and ideas and creations.

Plastic Overload...

I kind of always go overboard on the plasticky excess this time of year.

I don't mean to. I start off super spiritual with some kind of advent devotional. 

And I do it for one day {two if I'm lucky} and then I hit the Dollar Tree 

And I just go a little nuts. I just do. 

Instead of one snow globe, I buy four.

{It's only a dollar for cryin' out loud!}

Really? why?

But it's for the kids.

Is it really?

Like a starving child gorging herself on Doritos and Oreos.

It's junk that I love. Junk that is void of anything good and real and life-giving.

and yet my body craves real food.

nutrition. sustainance. in order to live.

my soul craves the real stuff.

And I keep shoving all of this plastic at it. 

At least I caught myself this year. That's a start, right?

I was trying to figure out what to put in the advent calendar,

so I took a harmless little trip to the Dollar Tree. Ha! 

I went a little hog wild. Then I put all the loot in the garage for a week.

When I went to wrap it all up, it made me want to puke. 

Plastic crapola. Everywhere. Gross.

So I was like, hmmmm... 

 Is this what I want our Christmas to be about?

Is this the message I want to send about what's important to us?

Hmmm... maybe I should stick a Bible verse in here to be somewhat 

spiritual and feel better about my gorge.

Because we all know the kids will race down stairs each 

morning to find out what the day's Bible verse, right?

And then I got tired.
And then that's as far as I got, and ya know what we do?
We stick the number on the day and call it a day. That's it.
No plastic. No crafts. No Bible verse.
A simple little count down.
And it's awesome.
They don't know any different.

So, other than counting down the days,
here's what we've been up to...

Putting up Christmas lights

Josh loves to help.

Preschool Christmas programs.
Very serious business.
priceless.

A trip to the mall and a ride on the train.

Finishing up some commissioned orders.

Riding motorcycles.
Also very serious.

More making...

Playing with with plastic nativity sets...

Santa's Workshop: Making Christmas gifts
in my lovely pajamas

Sawing and sanding calendars...

And more sawing and sanding

Packaging & mailing

Several trips to the post office later...

Tomorrow is the last day to buy from the shop to make 

sure that it arrives before Christmas! 

Christmas is so magical and intense with these littles.

They get so undone with excitement in the smallest things. 

Even the smallest of things are humongous to them:

putting up stockings, getting out the snowglobes 

{See! It's a good thing we have 15!},

putting up lights, making cookies, decorating the tree.

all completely magical.

usually followed up by a good dose of fighting, crankiness, 

disrespect; ending in a lovely extra long time out. 

Hope you are having a magical Christmas 

{as my oldest is screaming at the top of his lungs in his room in time out}