The Christmas Season

Why do I always take crooked photos? Always in motion One of the best gifts ever from Wiwiurka! I'll share more photos of it later when the sun comers out again.
Christmas just ended for us with the celebration of Epiphany. L found the bean in our corn bread for the first time (at least according to him it was the first time.) and got to wear the king's crown. I didn't take a lot of photos throughout the Christmas season due to a combination of no sun (I thought we left Oregon? 😂), and all my energy being spent on unboxing and trying to make room in our house. That actually explains why I haven't been in this space much either. We have almost unboxed everything now but still can't find our curriculum, homeschool supplies and some of our beloved Ostheimer toys. Know military moving companies, they're probably in some random box together marked garage or something. Oh well. Tomorrow we move forward and start school back up without the things I had hoped we would have.

You may have noticed that I forced myself to get in one of the pictures with my children at the tree farm above. As uncomfortable as I feel in front of the camera, I know they will want to have these memories to look back on when they are older. I am trying to remind myself of that and make it into a habit for this year. I suppose that is a New Years resolution of sorts.What about you? Did you make any?

The Christmas Season

Making a worthy dwelling

making lussekater those curls though!! Life has been a bit too hectic these past couple of weeks as we try to unbox our belongings and fit them into this house. I have already donated about 50% of our belongings and am still going. If anything, this house situation has really cemented my minimalist tendencies and is helping me to let go of even more. I am grateful for that. On the other hand, I am not so thrilled with the stress the clutter gives me. I planned on schooling up to Christmas week but I realized trying to teach while my brain is an utter mess just does not work. It hinders and harms our schooling so last week we decided it would be best to call off school and convene again after Epiphany. I am so glad we did. I have been able to be more present with my children an focus on this beautiful season. I was even able to clear out and clean up a space in our living room so we could put up our Christmas tree.

We also had the chance to join in the lantern parade at our local Christkindl market. It was like Martinmas all over again. We didn't stay long after the parade because it was past Baby F's bedtime and two of our other children were either coming down with cold or sick already. Understandably they were not the happiest bunch. Next year we'll go earlier to enjoy the market, too.

I can't believe it is just about Christmas Eve! We'll be spending the day baking in preparation for Christmas day and then Kevin and I will be spending the evening building a couple of things for the boys and decorating a dollhouse for sweet C. This is such an exhausting but glorious time!!

Making a worthy dwelling

Crafting On

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.

Starting a little Advent crafting by making a few new ornaments from scraps of wool I have on hand.
What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On

The Year Without a Christmas Tree

C wanted this costume for years - Nana and Grandpa made her day! C's Christmas hedgehog A new sweater for C's Phoebe for Christmas Hello, hello! I feel like I have been pretty absent here these last weeks of Advent. I hope you are enjoying this Christmas season so far. I honestly can't believe it is already the fourth day! This year my children are truly reminding me of the meaning of Christmas. Remember my mention of Kevin being away for a few weeks? Well, that time away was extended and he didn't end up getting back home to us until last Thursday. Talk about a mad scramble to get everything ready before Sunday!

Every year we try to wait as long as possible to get our Christmas tree. This year the wait was a bit longer because we wanted to pick it out with Daddy. There are only two places to get them locally so we essentially play a game of "tree chicken" trying not to wait too long to get one or else they may all be gone. Well, this year we lost. Not only were they sold out locally but in Boise as well. I was fretting just a bit, wanting this Christmas to be perfect since it will be our last one here. Ridiculously allowing myself to be consumed with self-pity I mumbled something under my breath about having no tree. Little L somehow heard me, looked deeply into my eyes and said, "Mama, we don't need a tree for it to be Christmas." The pure innocence, wisdom and love in his words just made me melt. He was right. The next day K took her personal mini tree from her room and placed it in our front room where we would normally keep our tree. We decided that would be just the perfect thing. Little L topped it with his "Happy Birthday Jesus" star he made in RE class, reminding us what Christmas is all about.

p.s. - Our cat, on the other hand, is not too happy about our lack of a Christmas tree this year. She loves spending all her time sleeping under the tree. The little one just isn't cutting it for her, but as you can see in the photo she is trying her best to make do!

The Year Without a Christmas Tree