christmas.

I've lived away from family now for 14 years. In the beginning it was rough but as the years went on it became easier and I grew accustomed to it. Yet it never fails, I'm always a bit bummed around the holidays, I wish we lived closer to family. Oh how nice it would be to go from house to house and not have to pack up our entire house in the process. Our families have been great coming our way the past few years for Christmas but there are times where it still bums me out. But, we make the best of it. We love having the kids wake up in their own beds on Christmas morning, it's a night of little sleep due to the arrival of Santa, and you bet we believe in Santa, I mean who doesn't?!

Christmas Eve photo attempts by Josh. I had to work and he did his best at getting a photo of the kids using my camera(which he hates, it's not user friendly). He was also determined to make it to the Christmas Eve service at church but when he arrived it was almost over. Turns out that when he googled the time of the service it was for a church in Maryland with the same name. He calls me at work to say "well, had we lived in Maryland we would of been on time."

The night before Christmas, the ONE night of the year where I'm convinced Max does not fall into a deep sleep, no REM cycle for this kid. He's always up first on Christmas morning, and always around 5:30A.M. Any other day he'd sleep until at least 8/8:30, but Christmas, NO WAY! I always love it too because EVERY Christmas morning he tells me how he heard Santa with a very detailed story, the kid cracks me up. I'm afraid he may ACTUALLY be devastated the day he finds out who "SANTA" really is. Oh and don't think that Josh and I haven't let it slip on more than one occasion, there's a 90% chance we will be those people who ruin it for him, okay for them, but truth be told I don't think Lila will be too upset, she doesn't like jolly old man. Today while discussing one of "Santa's" gifts to Max I don't know how many times we said "gosh we should of got him that one instead" or "I didn't know when I was buying it....." and each time Max would hear us he'd say "ah, you mean Santa not YOU guys, you don't buy it." Oh I love his innocence, but really, I'm surprised he hasn't figured it out yet.

I LOVE this photo of Max lunging for another gift. And Lila was pretty pumped about her pink legos.

Our entire Christmas day was spent in our jammies. The sun was shining but it was cold, about 5 degrees, but we stayed warm and cozy on the couch, covered in blankets, watching Christmas movies.
We had our traditional Christmas crepes for breakfast paired with some sparkling juice and a hot cup of coffee.

Instagram pics.

Max stayed busy building multiple lego creations and engaging in some high energy Skylander battles,

while Lila fancied us up with bracelets and necklaces,

and at the end of the day my house looked like this,

but it was worth it. The mess remained until the next day.

As I mentioned earlier our families come our way for Christmas. We were able to celebrate with Grandpa Don, Grandma Jean, Great Granny, Auntie Jenna, and Uncle Mike just before Christmas. A late lunch and movies were on the agenda, along with some gift opening. Lila was a little too excited and tore into one before they were all in the front door yelling "YAY, jammies!"

We celebrated with Grandpa and Grandma Buck the weekend after Christmas. A little bit of eating, visiting, and swimming at the hotel. Any chance we get to go swimming at a hotel is always a plus when you're 6 and 3.

More pop bead fun.

Star Wars Legos.

Nursing skills.

I hope and pray that 2013 is a good year for everyone. Here's to health and happiness, to being thankful for what truly matters in life and not getting caught up in what doesn't, to completing nursing school with as little stress as possible(not sure how realistic that is), and to any new and exciting opportunities that may come our way. Cheers!