On my Mind: Crazy December

This Site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Here, I give you another installment of what’s ON my Mind (click the link for past posts). A post where I share what I’ve been up to, with thoughts swirling in my head. Wow, oh Wow, December is always crazy, but I’ve been wrapped up in something every night the past week! I’ve found that in my “old age” I prefer to stay home in my pajama’s and cuddle up with my fam in the evening. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a social butterfly, but I’ve felt more anti social the past few months. Some is intentional, some just comes from being content with where I am in life. When I stopped to realize I had something every night this past week, my head went spinning.

  • Monday was our family night, and our kids acted out the Rudolph story and shared the moral of not judging others by their looks.
  • Tuesday was a mother daughter Activity for my 9 year old daughter’s church group
  • Wednesday I hosted a little gathering at my home
  • Thursday was our women’s Christmas party for church
  • Friday was my husbands work party–karaoke was involved
  • Saturday I sent my boys to San Antonio, and with my girls watched my friends kids for a few hours, then took my 5 year old daughter to the Nutcracker with our friend who gave us free tickets
  • Sunday we had friends over to watch the worldwide Christmas Devotional for our church

Can I just take a nap now???

I’ll admit, the week before was all geared up to prepping my home for the gathering I hosted on Wednesday. There was a lot involved for prep besides cleaning my house and setting up my Christmas decorations to perfection. I’ll be sharing that in some future posts. Here is one of my oldest son helping me tie candy canes to the upstairs balcony to hang below. Such good helpers!

IMG_4151

I don’t know about all of you, but in my life, most of my social interactions have been with my church family. We see each other each Sunday, often during the week, we plan play groups together, ladies night out, craft nights, book clubs, etc. I’ve always loved the fact that my church is worldwide, and no matter where I go, what state I move to, I know there is a local church congregation that I can jump right into.  We are an extended family. But we all know what happens with extended family, right?  A lot of love, but also a lot of emotions flying around. I’ve just needed to re-focus my energies lately, and I realized I had to make an extra effort to have a get together with people outside of my standard group from church.  People that I love to pieces, but just don’t see as often as I’d like. In October, I devised a plan to do just that. There are just too many people that I love to see, that I don’t get to see very often.  People that I’ve made connections with, but rarely get to connect. So I organized a party around those people. It’s always excruciating for me to make a “list” as I hate leaving people out and hurting feelings. It’s happened to me before, so I get it. On the flip side, I hate to do nothing, and not have fun and enjoy the people in my life, so I go forward with a prayer in my heart that people will understand.  It was a really fun night, I got emotional as I looked around at all of the people in that room that bring me joy. Here is a snap of me as hostess:

party host

For my husbands’ work party, I hardly know anyone very well except one couple. We chatted with lots of people, then my friend Jen convinced me to do karaoke. I like to do it, so it isn’t a problem. The hardest part is deciding on what song to sing! I finally decided on a song, then realized I had signed up for the competition portion of the event. No, no, no, I don’t want to compete!  Well, it was too late…so there I was, the wife of an employee, competing against all employee’s of the company! I didn’t have a chance at winning, especially since the winner won by loudest cheers–hardly anyone knew me (or my husband who works in a small section of the company).

I sang, “Bye Bye” by Jo Dee Messina, always a favorite of mine. It’s a tough song to sing, I got out of breath! I felt pretty good about it, but there was another gal that sang “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey, and she did pretty good. At the end, all 5 acts stood up and they pointed to each of us (super awkward!) for cheers—several times! My friend Jen, her husband, and my husband did a great job screaming, because I ended up getting 2nd place! $25 Visa gift card–not too bad!

karaoke singing

Saturday morning, I went to a baby shower, then offered to watch my friends’ kids so she could get some stuff done… (my boys were gone for the day, it was just us girls) I got to teach my daughter how to cuddle a baby. We don’t get much practice. Love me some baby love.  I love to watch my kids with them, too. If only…

baby sleeping

I practiced my baby multi tasking skills–I’ve still got it! Can write letters and work on the computer with a baby sleeping in my laps/arms;)

multi tasking mom

Saturday night, my friend asked my youngest daughter and I to accompany her and her daughter to the Nutcracker. I thought it’d be a great outing, and I’d never been in years! I actually can’t remember if I have or not, but I really don’t know the storyline. The dancing was beautiful, we had lots of fun, and I’m glad we went! It dragged on a bit in the end, I think I’m not as cultured as some….my daughter keeps talking about it, and those are the moments I treasure!

mother daughter matching outfits

 

The nutcracker ballet

Sunday after church is generally relaxing, but I had 2 church meetings to go to, then we watched our church Christmas Devotional. Last week in church, when they announced this devotional from the pulpit, my good friend Shelley was sitting behind us and leaned forward and said, “lets watch it together!” and I said, “Ok, come over!” It’s nice to have a good friend who likes to hang out with us as much as we like to hang out with them! I’ve also found in my “old age” that that is hard to come by, too. So they came over, and we at least heard some great Christmas music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir amidst the rambunctious kids! They have little ones, and it reminds me of our family years ago. They have two boys and just had a baby girl (see us holding baby above), and our kids love each other!  Our families have felt quite compatible despite our ages.
IMG_4139

The boys were all just wrestling, but I couldn’t see all their faces! My youngest is in love with my friends’ oldest, and got all fancy when she heard they were coming over…and cuddled up next to his mom!  They are cute friends;)
IMG_4152

baby love

Lastly, our Family Home Evening lesson/play. Our older daughter came up with the lesson to read the book, based on how Rudolph shouldn’t have been treated different because of how she looked. Loved that she came up with it all, and even dressed her sister (the reindeer) with pipe cleaner antlers!

rudolph play

Below, I’ve got a great actress on my hand….while the camo reindeer ridicules her, she frowns…then laughs with Santa.

santa and reindeer

Tell me some fun activities you’ve done so far this Christmas season!

 

Privacy Policy