Christmas traditions

I love Christmas. I have many fond memories from Christmas traditions with my family as a kid. I don’t remember many presents really but I remember the excitement of Christmas Eve, the energy having to sit through Christmas Eve church, the cookies, stockings, waking early and waiting until we were allowed up. I remember opening our stockings at a different time then all the other presents. 

As a mom I have tried to make these traditions and even more with my kids. Turns out they really do remember them and I think they even appreciate them. We have added a few of our own along the way as well such as making gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and decorating them on Christmas Eve. We also started having a charcuterie board dinner after church and Grammas special bread for Christmas morning breakfast. Playing a family game of charades when we can like the Cummings family did. 

Waiting for Ellie to get ready Christmas morning 

Clair made this pillow for daddy. 

Ellie made this bow for me. 

So tired 

Christmas crackers 

The past 48 hours have been great with the kids. They have appreciates the traditions and the experiences and all thanked me for their presents. 

Clair did have a super hard time setting down last night and was up by 430 am singing Christmas carols while she used the bathroom and waking everyone else up in the path. But she was so sweet I did not even yell. I absolutely love the energy and happiness she has for Christmas. She was absolutely wrecked when we were done opening gifts at 11 am. But she made it through the evening at jerred and Vicki’s with a smile on her face. 

Jerred and Vicki joshes cuzzie Christmas this year and on Christmas night. It wa different but that’s okay. It was nice being together and the fact everyone appeared healthy enough for this to happen was a lovey Christmas miracle. 

It’s been a great day of gifts, relaxation and family time. Tomorrow we wake up and do it again at grammas. 

Christmas readiness started early this year

Clair started asking about the Christmas tree in October. The girl has plans. She wanted the tree up the day after Thanksgiving. My rule is that it has to be December. Well, she won! 

At nine she is full of energy and joy and love for the world. She is so excited for Christmas and the magic. She believes and loves with her full heart. This makes it magical for us both and I decided to try to indulge as much as I could with her this year from the early tree decorating, to all the traditions she remember, to the early arrival of the Elf, to shopping for siblings, to decorating, cookies, fudge, countdown chains, oh my! 

She decorated her desk. 

She brought Christmas decorations up from the basement storage and put them out herself. 

The elves insisted we continue the cherry pie tradition after tree decorating Continues. 

Walking in the Christmas Parade with Girl Scouts and enjoying giving out candy from her Santa sack. 

After the parade. 

Small crew this year waiting for Santa. 

Santa gave her a present. 

She won the guess for one of the candies and Aliza won the other one. 

Visiting Santa with Gramma and her cousins 

We even ordered matching PJs which I’ve never done with her!

Max and David head to Scotland

on November 3rd  David and Max embarked on their adventure to visit Granny and Millar for a long weekend. I’m excited for their adventure. 

We took them to the airport and ensured they got checked in, and saw them off through to security. Max was excited; Clair was a little sad. She says she will miss Max a lot. I love how much they love each other and rely on each other’s friendship. 

We had them find the check in counter using the Map. I love that they like these challenges navigating. 

Max looks really grown up here. 

Clair was genuinely sad. 

They had a great trip. Grannie spoiled them both and they seem to survive the jet lag quite well, definitely better then MammaH on the returns from Poland. 

Genuine care and sweetness

I’m amazed sometimes at how caring Clair is. When she sees me upset or even uncomfortable, she provides physical touches such as hugs or back rubs or sweet kisses on the cheek with genuine care and desire to soothe. She is so heartfelt. I don’t know who taught her this and her parents can’t take credit for it. I truly think she gets this from relatives pat she has never met. 

Tonight I’m doing a nose rinse and she reaches over and starts just rubbing my back. 

Fall sports and activities have Clair running like crazy

This girl can’t pick favorites and she’s very vocal about it. So, for fall she is playing travel soccer, rec softball and trying to stay engaged with Girl Scouts. She’s a busy girl. 

She has also started playing the Cello is school. 

She loves every single one of these activities. She is happy to go and wants to get getter with each practice and game. She tells me she doesn’t know which she prefers and wants tj jeep doing it all. If only there were more days in a week and hours in a day for her to try more of the amazing fun activities life has to offer. 

First at home Cello practice was immediately after getting home after her first lesson. 


She also insisted on entering the voluntary school pumpkin contest. This is her Wilbur!

Fall soccer - Max

With the return of my favorite season we find ourselves spending our weekends at soccer games. 

Max is local to frederick. He’s playing on  14 u rec team. He feels under sized and over powered. He’s not enjoying it as much. We tell him to keep working hard. These years when you are the youngest on the field are great for character building. 

Last weekend he had two games. One was very tough for him with a lot of missed goals. But a second one turned out better and he was happier when he managed to score a goal. 

Cleared for Jujitsu

I’m really proud of this girl. She has worked so hard to recover from her OCD repair of the ankle in February. She has had months of growling PT and hard work to get to the point where she was cleared to return to full physical activity finally. 

She started back to Jujitsu this Wednesday and it was such a great feeling for me and her. 

I started to see glimpse of my physically strong Ellie at the beach with surfing and boogie boarding. It makes my heart happy to see her able to be active and do what she wants again. 

Yes, I miss watching her play softball but apparently that’s not where her heart is. Most of all, I want her following her heart and finding her place in this world. 

I snapped this photo right when she walked back in the house.