Wrapping it up!

This year is about over...in some ways it has flown and in others...maybe not.

I'm sitting here just doing something unusual for me...watching TV and nothing else (except blogging). I have a few things I want to do, but I'm trying to soak in the season and the break from doing school with Aliyah & Keirah. It is just as much a break for Josh & I as it is for them. We have to make sure everything is getting done, grade papers, get up earlier to get them started before heading to work etc...

After an epic illness, we had a lovely Christmas. I'm sad that people that we had over got sick also, but I thought with 3 days in between the sickness and gathering we would be safe. We used Clorox and cleaned and cleaned and washed and washed...but who knows!

Christmas Day was the most relaxing we have ever experienced. We woke up early for the girls to see their gifts. Each one had one gift and stockings on Christmas morning. We got ready and dolled up in their beautiful silver & blue Christmas dresses. We went to church and had a lovely service. They call all of the children to the front and one of the pastors reads a Christmas story to the kids. Afterwards, each child receives an ornament. This year, they were ball ornaments that said "Joy to the World". Cute as all get out, but it was funny because you could hear them dropping and rolling toward the front for the rest of the service.

We came home and family came for Christmas dinner. It was yummy. We opened gifts and the girls played and played and played. They love every gift they received and have played non-stop. The adults sat back and chilled. After dessert, family went home and we all just did nothing, but sit. Josh and I watched our church's Christmas show on TV and just talked. The girls did...well can you guess??? Played.
We decided to begin cleaning up the kitchen, and everything else. After 3 days of straight celebrating at our house, it definitely needed it! Did I mention we started something new this year? We started doing Christmas Eve breakfast. We wanted to take full advantage of our new and improved kitchen.

So, now we have everything cleaned up I suppose and the inside decs are put away. All that is left is the outdoor stuff. We have one more Christmas to celebrate and then New Year's.

I will probably do a few separate posts on saving money and other stuff. With the rising cost of so many things for us and I'm sure many out there, I'm trying to be more wise with $$. Our insurance (both house & health), property taxes and all kinds of things have or are going up very shortly!