Blogmas Catch Up

 

I live in Illinois so Mother Nature likes to throw all kinds of weather at us all year long, just to keep us guessing.  In the past month, we have had 60 degree days, rain, snow, freezing rain, almost 0 degree temps (with wind chill), and even some sunshine.  We had snow on Thanksgiving, so let's hope for snow on Christmas.  We had a beautiful weekend of 50 degree weather, but this is what our roads looked like a week and 1/2 ago.....

 

 

My children have always had a chocolate advent calendar to count down to Christmas.  This was something I always had as a child as well.  I have noticed that the younger ones are better about eating them everyday, but the older ones play catch up....at least they don't skip ahead :)  We did have the year when Madison was about 3 that she ate all of Katie's chocolates when we weren't looking.  We had to keep them in a high place for the rest of the season and it was crazy hard to find one late in the game to replace Katie's but we did.... Praise God!!

 

R.J., our elf, has been bringing the calendars with him from the North Pole on the day he returns...

 

 

Some background on my history, my dad was a retired drill sergeant in the Army.  He retired when I was 7 years old.  When I was young he still had a very gruff voice and his presence could be intimidating if you did not know him.  Later in life it was still intimidating if he wanted it to be :)  When it came to me he was always a softy...always.  My brother and I where 14 years apart in age, he was pretty much an adult most of my life.  He was the super coolest brother ever and again could be quite a softy when it came to me, even putting aside his teenage attitude back in the day. 

 

And on with the story....

 

When I was 4, I decided our family should act out the Christmas story on Christmas Eve.  I chose my dad to be Joseph, my brother a wise man, my mom an angel (she was an angel), myself as Mary, and my baby doll as Jesus.  I set up the scene and used a doll bed as the manager.  This was all staged in front of the Christmas Tree.  My mom had to stand on a chair and use a flashlight as the star shining down on us and we all had towels on our head for costumes.  I told the story (from memory...lol) and we all took our places in front of the tree like a live nativity.  There was no one there to witness it or to take a picture for a memory.  The memory lives on in my mind and I am so blessed for a family that loved a little girl so much that they would do this. 

 

Merry Christmas

image from Pintrest