Forever Young: Tis The Season

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here! The house has been decorated since Thanksgiving...

Our tree

The nativity is glowing

Glad tidings arrive each day

The dining room is ready for Christmas Eve dinner

Signs of the season

Our message board tells how much longer until
the big day!

We took this idea from John's chapel teacher this year. Instead of counting how many days until Christmas (and debating, do we count today?), her family counts how many "sleeps" until Christmas morning. We liked this thought, so we've been counting down the nights.

I've been having lots of ups and downs this holiday season. I go through this every year, vascilating between moments of peace and reflection and spasms of panic and stress. There's so much I want to do, and so many experiences I want to provide the kids...so many expectations (mostly unrealistic ones), and so many tasks to be done. It is difficult to discern what is urgent, and what is truly important...I find myself in a tug of war each day of the season, but when I look back on the days I see all the blessings that are there. This week was a good one...very busy, but filled with fun. On Wednesday I went to chapel at school, where John's class performed a lovely song and recited a fantastic poem about slowing down and basking in Christ's love during the holiday season. It was wonderful!

On Thursday I chaperoned his class's trip to the Center for the Arts to see "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever", which is my favorite children's Christmas story. It was so good! We laughed so hard at the play and the kids who performed were great.

On Thursday night I went to the Mohr Results Adventure Boot Camp Christmas Party with all the ladies who have done boot camp for the entire year in 2011. This was a really great night. I was telling Lawrence when I got home how inspired I was to be around so many women who have committed to taking care of themselves and living their best life. I've been working out with the Mohrs for two and half years, and I can honestly say it has changed my life in so many positive ways. As I look back on the year with them, I'm proud of all the work I've put in to stay healthy. I've committed to another year (along with Shannon!), so I'm looking forward to celebrating another fit year in December of 2012!

Love my fellow fit chicks!

On Friday I went to help out at John's Christmas party at school. Sarah's class had a breakfast that morning, but she prefers I lay low for those events, so I enjoyed one of my last "elementary" parties. John had a ball with his friends, and he loved the Frosty the Snowman that Mrs. Dennison gave everyone.

Last night Lawrence and I went to our favorite holiday party of the season, my "work" party at my boss's house. Every year my boss, Gary, has a big game night party for our team, and it is fun from start to finish. He puts an insane amount of time into planning out the games, the teams and the prizes...this year he even made us watch an instructional video of all the games before we started. It was hilarious!

Throughout the night you win points for how well you do at each game, and then you win play money based on what place you come in. At the end of the night he and his wife, Carrie, auction off a huge assortment of prizes, which you bid on with your money. The kids love to see what we come home with every year...this year it was a yard game, an Under Armor workout shirt, some Bath & Body Works goodies, a DVD, a picture frame and a garden gnome (Lawrence's favorite).