Now that the new year has begun, you won't hear much from me on resolutions. My thoughts on the matter are captured well here by Jamie at Steady Mom. I've shared other random ideas on self improvement and attainability in this article.Meanwhile, I am still reflecting on the time we spent together as a family between Christmas and New Year's Day. It was a rare opportunity to slow down and enjoy having my husband at home with us.
We did:
- re-enact the biblical Christmas story as a family (minus a sleeping boy).
- enjoy homemade cinnamon rolls from the frozen dough that my sister-in-law made for us at Thanksgiving.
- decorate gingerbread houses at the home of some friends of ours.
- purge the house of excess junk and miscellany when my husband organized all the toys.
- take a sudden two-day excursion to Kansas City, where my parents-in-law live. My kids also got to play with two of their cousins from Chicago who were visiting with their parents (my SIL and her husband).
shovel hundreds of pounds of snow from our l-o-n-g driveway.
- remain safely ensconced inside our cozy brick house from the evening of December 23 to December 27.
- watch several movies at home as a couple. I'm still pondering the documentary we watched, Let the Church Say Amen. It has great potential for fostering a group discussion on the role of the church in society.
We didn't:
- remember to hang and fill Christmas stockings until December 26th.
- travel to Ohio to celebrate with my grandfather. I felt heartsick about not going.
- bake Swedish tea ring, Christmas cookies, or other traditional holiday edibles.
- feast on my husband’s holiday specialty—Garlic Spaghetti. The reason: I forgot to buy ground beef.
- attend a Christmas Eve service at a church.
- stay on schedule for our Advent readings from Preparing for Jesus, by Walter Wangerin, Jr. We should finish mid-January. It has been wonderfully vivid so far!
- send Christmas cards by post. A belated e-mail newsletter had to suffice—again.
- watch A Wonderful Life...yet. It’s been a yearly tradition for my husband since he was a child.
- enjoy even one bite of my family’s traditional fruitcake. I missed it.
I hope you were able to savor some meaningful moments and traditions with your family in the last few weeks as well. Feel free to comment and share some of what you did or didn't do as you wrapped up 2009. I'm glad to be back with the Company Girls this week!
10 comments:
Wow - you had a busy, lovely season. My hubby was home more during the holidays, too, and we miss seeing him more. =) Thanks for visiting my blog today! Maybe you can hit some of those "missed" items soon!
hmmm...most of Christmas was pretty traditional for us. We made the trek to my Aunt's for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...but we missed out a lot because at one time or another one of us was sick...from 12/22-1/4...yuck...I thinkwe are on the mend now though!
It sounds like you had a great Christmas!
We finally enjoyed my husband's garlic spaghetti last night. It was delicious!
Glad you had a nice holiday, with or without all the normal traditions...you just got the opportunity to spread the holidays out over a little extra time!
We enjoyed having my husband home for two weeks, which was great, but it is also nice to get back to our schedule and routine! Hope the new year goes smoothly for you!
Looks like it was still a wonderful time even though you missed a few things. I didn't even get around to pulling out the decorations this year. It went by that fast. We did a few new things this year too. So that was great. The snow shoveling part didn't sound so great though. =( Hope 2010 will bring some fantastic memories.
it sounds like the good stuff you did outweighs all the stuff you missed :)
Even though you left out a lot of stuff that it you wanted to do, you were still very busy! ...and there's always next Christmas!
That first picture of your daughter is so cute! I love it.
I've noticed some place names we have in common. My Hubby is from Nebraska, his parents are in Lincoln. We met in Kansas City, and we now live in Chicago.
It sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas, and I hope you have a great weekend.
I did NOT send out any Christmas cards this year. I do have the rough draft of a letter that I'm debating sending out. We didn't get together with family on Christmas day because of the weather, but were able to do that a few days later. We enjoyed having our two college kids home for a few weeks & had a great time with them!!!
There is always so much to do during the holidays...so hard to get it all in. Glad you had a good Christmas though.
We spent ours at home this year and had my MIL with us. My SIL and her fam. came the day after Christmas. It's always loads of fun having all the cousins together. We traveled to my parents for New Year's weekend (3 hours away). It always go by too fast!
Post a Comment