Change.

I will admit that I am one who does not enjoy change. Even good change can be difficult for me. I realized after responding to a friend about our current address that we have lived in a different house/apartment every year since the Christmas of 2002. 6 years, 6 different dwellings. For someone who doesn't like change, that sure is a lot! Hmmm...I wonder where we will be next Christmas??

Feliz Nabiblah...

That's how Neily sings it. Isn't it funny what kids come up with? Actually, not just kids...After M and I married we were singing some Christmas songs and he busted out with, "and pretend that he is possum brown." Possum Brown? Are you kidding me? I laughed so hard at him I almost wet my pants! Anyway, we are really enjoying this Christmas season. Here are some picture from the last week.

One of the MANY attempts to get a cute Christmas card photo...

Decorating the tree with bubble wrap

Hanging out in Downtown Franklin where they had "Dickens Village" last weekend. There were people dreesed up like the Dickens characters, horse and buggy rides, and some tasty treats. It was a fun was to enjoy the holiday season.

On Friday we had a visit from Uncle Chris, Aunt Jen, and Elizabeth. We only saw them for a few hours, but we had a lot of fun.

Who can resist a little girl in her daddy's hat?

For someone who used to make a career out of working out, I have managed to not step foot in a gym in almost 2 years! Who would have thought??...

It basically came down to choosing between spending time with my husband at night or going to the gym. I of course chose the first option and that has been so much better for my soul than buff biceps. I have done what I can with the kids like running with the double stroller or doing lunges and push-ups while we play in the yard. Not going to the gym has turned out to be a really good thing because I have figured out how to incorporate exercise here and there throughout the day and I don't feel so obligated to "work out". Mitch and I have just started doing a workout video together a few times a week and that has been the best of both worlds...time with my hubby and exercise. This brings me to the point of this entry: our workout video. We have started doing yoga and we found this great video with 3 different workouts at 3 different levels. We are on level one and probably will there for a while. If you can get past the instructor's hair and jean shorts, it's really a great workout. So, if you are looking for something challenging to do in the comfort of you own home (maybe you can even get your hubby to join you!), try this workout by Bryan Kest.

HO HO HO..or maybe I should say HA HA HA!

This weekend was going to be the magical weekend that we went and picked out the tree, baked and decorated some yummy shortbread cookies, and decorated the tree. I foolishly idealized the weekend, but I was quickly reminded that with 2 kids under 3 your expectations have to be low.
It started Friday night when we went to pick out the tree. The plan was to eat dinner, run by walmart, go to Lowe's to pick out the tree and be home sometime around 7pm. Well, things took a bit longer than expected and so by the time we got to Lowe's for the tree it was already 7:45. Jake had wet through his diaper and it was 1/2 hour past his typical bedtime. As I said in an earlier post, we planned on Neily picking out the tree. Basically we walked on the lot and went to the $19.99 section, Neily pointed at the first tree she saw and said, "oooh mommy, look at that tree!" That is the one we got. We were in and out in a matter of minutes. Thankfully the tree we got looks pretty good considering we didn't even check it out while on the lot. We finally made it home around 8:30 and got the kids to bed.

Saturday was the day for cookie baking and tree decorating. The fun started with the cookie baking and I somehow managed to drop all of the cookies back into the oven when I was pulling them out. We salvaged most of them, although some were marked with black charred lines. In the decorating process Neily managed to get chocolate all over her new Christmas pj's (so much for the cute pictures I was planning on taking!). When we finally got to the decorating of the tree, the kids were mainly interested in figuring out how to hang bubble wrap from the tree. At least they were participating in trying to hang something!

At the end of the evening we turned all of the lights off in the house and sat on the sofa in front of the tree listening to Christmas music. All was well. We laughed about the day and enjoyed the few moments (and I mean FEW) we had as a family snuggling together enjoying our tree. Not quite the day I had expected, but we still made some fun memories.