The goal is Gratitude

In all of this Christmas "commercialism" as it were, I have been struggling to keep real perspective on the reason for the season.  I know when I start to get the "green eyed monster" creeping up on me from the back, I do best to combat it with counting my blessings. Even better than counting them is writing them down.  Here is the start of the list. I say that because I don't want the list to ever end, and for that I am grateful. I am going to include my gratitude listing with each post and that is one of my goals for the new year.  2013 will be filled with at least 2013 things I'm thankful for (that's only about 6 per day).  
The first ones on my list include:

1.  Family; they are healthy, happy, and keep me running around really good.  
2. My Savior, for without Him, all of this would be for naught.  
3. Tim, my sweetheart. He is my soul-mate, my best friend, my confidante, and makes me laugh and cry and life worth living.  
4. My house.  I have struggled with this since we had to sell our "model home" in Gilbert 2 years ago, but I am thankful that we have a place to live, and call home, even if we don't feel rooted by owning it at this time.  We will own a home again eventually, right where the Lord wants us to sink our roots deep.
5. My car. It runs when I want it to, all the places we need to go, it fits us all, and has bonus entertainment in the form of a DVD player.
6. Cookies. We've been eating our weight in cookies this week, for that is what Christmas is made of, lots of sweets: family, food, and time spent together.

Well, there is the start of my list, and I have a jump start on next year. I have a few days to finalize some of my other realistic new year resolutions before the ball drops in Times' Square (which is actually going to be midnight real-time for us for the first time!) so I'll make myself accountable by writing them down here for all to see.

Merry Christmas in Georgia (lots of pictures :)

Merry Christmas!  Our first Christmas in Georgia was a great success, in all aspects.  We were able to have fun times as a family. I was able to share my violin playing talents at church on Sunday which I love to do this time of year.  Tim had the choice of having Christmas Eve off of work or the day after Christmas, and he chose the 26th, but he unfortunately woke up sick, with flu-like symptoms. We blamed it on eating a diet high in sugar and um, nothing else. He hasn't been sick like this for a while, we hope it's not the flu.

The weather for Christmas Eve and Christmas day was festively foggy.  I prefer that over snow, as a transition from Gilbert's usually beautifully sunny Christmas weather.  The temps weren't too cold which is good for me, I'm cold-phobic, not really because I don't like it, but because I'm really not prepared for it.

We felt so included for the annual tradition of opening gifts from Grandma/Grandpa Jensen on Christmas eve, and also reading the nativity and talking about what Christmas is really about. We also read the story of the Christmas Orange (makes me cry EVERY time!)

The girls loved their lovingly homemade pillow pets from Grandma Jensen. She rocks! And the girls have found permanent place for them on their beds for sure. Thank you Grandma, your love is felt all the way over here!

Kennedy loves purple!

Happy girls modeling their new Christmas PJ's and Pillow Pets. We really could have stopped there, and they would have been perfectly content. I need to remember that for next year...

Audrey being... Awesome Audrey!

Don't forget to feed the Reindeer, added glitter helps them find their goodies...

Lots of sparkle for Rudolph's nose to reflect off of...

Beautiful spread, tiny rooms make the spoils feel even more bounteous!

I absolutely love our Christmas tree. I'm sad we left some of our Christmas decor and tree in AZ, but hopefully it will be well taken care of until we can retrieve it.

Some happy animals ready for some Christmas morning lovin'!

The girls catch first sight of the goodies... (yup those are moving boxes in the corner, taking up a quarter of the room)

Behind Santa's chair you'll see the girls dragging their jaws across the floor looking at what was left for them.

Pure Joy, those animals have no idea how much love they are gonna get.

Let the unwrapping begin!

Kennedy is super excited for her sparkly boots and new coat.

Kennedy gave some plush toys to Audrey and this is what came next... Melts my heart!

Here's to Audrey and some trips to Hot Wheels to get even more proficient with her skates. She is an animal!

Mele Kalike Maka is the thing to say, on a [Georgia Christmas morning] Day!

Loving the chocolate gold!

Here comes some decorative duct tape accessories!

Some backyard fun.

Today I saw the girls outside running around, riding "horses" and having lots of fun on a rare clear sunny day, so I grabbed my camera, which I'm trying to do more, rather than just using my phone camera, and got these pictures. Some of them are pretty good, due to the subject matter for sure! Enjoy!

Its like pure joy captured!

Can you say "Gap Kids advertisement" That's if she were wearing Gap clothes, but she's cute enough without the high price tag.

Audrey was awesome at riding her stick horse all around the back yard.

Traditions

 We are getting ready for Christmas, doing what we can to keep/start our own family traditions. Tim is working so much that he is having a hard time getting into the Spirit of everything. His job is really, really stressful and takes a lot of time. I am finding that I really miss working, ( didn't see that coming ) and I'm in the process of getting my license here, so I can start working again at least 1 day a week.  I have so much self-actualization happening here as the at-home parent, away from family, and trying to tune out all the stuff that is fluff and and tune into what I really need to be doing and it is hard. Crud, it is hard. So, I am clinging to our traditions here this Christmas season. Not that they are amazing, but because they bond us to each other. They invite the spirit of family. Their actions say, "This is important because family is important."

The traditions that we are doing our best to keep alive include but are not limited to:

• Christmas caroling as a family
• breakfast with Santa
• making candy together as a family
• seeing Christmas lights as a family (hopefully we will do that soon)
• serving as a family (finding others with a need and filling that somehow)
• watching Christmas movies as a family
• making Christmas music as a family (piano and violin)

And now we have new traditions we are adopting, and I don't know if you can technically call it a "tradition" if you've only done it once, but I believe that if it strengthens family unity, then it earns the title of tradition.

                  

We had a really fun time with the girls last Saturday morning at the Church where we had a yummy breakfast, and then a special visitor.  Emma and Audrey were ready for the conversation, but it took quite a bit of coaxing for Kennedy. I just love, love, love the stages and ages that my girls are at right now.  They are so sweet and innocent and want good things. They are such good girls.  I feel so blessed to have them in my life. I need to say that because lately I have been taking way too much for granted, and not looking an my basket of blessings that is overflowing.

I enjoyed this moment with Kennedy last week, after a really, really rough  morning, I was able to spend some good time talking with some dear friends I've made here, and then capture pictures of Kennedy doing this.  Through this activity she was able to help me see that life is in the moments right now. Not about tomorrow, or the to-do list, or what I didn't get done (I'm really good at focusing on what isn't checked off my list, ugh). So, thank you to my family for keeping my grounded, and my friends for being listening ears, for my kids that make me laugh, and my husband that makes me see what I need to focus on.

So, here's to raking together the proverbial pile of leaves and jumping into them, just because we want to and we can. May this week before Christmas be filled with activities that not only make you happy, but also bring peace and joy to those around you. Merry Christmas Eve Week.