Saturday, November 25, 2017

Thanksgiving 2017

Holidays are always so exciting! This Thanksgiving has been no exception. We had a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner with nana and papa.





 Shaun made his first turkey and it was juicy and tender and perfect. I’m just glad I didn’t have to make it.i can take credit for finding the recipe so there’s that. Friday we did all of our shopping online, thank you Amazon ✅, so we took the afternoon and enjoyed a girls day out. The girls and I took nana and went to see “Wonder”, a beautiful movie. It was very well done and had me on the verge of tears and laughter many times. It’s a movie I’d highly recommend. Then, in keeping with tradition, we went Friday evening and got our Christmas tree at Meadows Farms. We picked a beaut this year!



 But of course none of our lights from last year worked, so today’s task has been to get new lights while papa took the girls to ANOTHER movie, Cocoa, which I also heard was good. I know, my kids are so super spoiled. But I also love that they are building so many memories with their grandparents. I never really had that, so I think it’s wonderful! Although it does get a bit ridiculous at times. They are taking them next week to the theater. Shaun and I didn’t get invited ๐Ÿ˜ฉ, but it’s in the middle of the week when we both have to work. 

So this beautiful picture I’ve painted of this holiday sounds great, right? And it has been, but I’d be lying if I said that in between the great moments, the priceless memories that will go down in the record books, there’s equal parts frustration, fatigue, and relentless bickering. Between kids, between kids and adults, and sometimes between adults. The bottom line is life is tough. Even when it’s great, it’s hard. I learned a long time ago that with children you have to appreciate the moments when they come. The moments everyone is playing together without fighting, the laughter and giggles, the sweet and spontaneous hugs and kisses from sticky faces (aka my three year old). Those moments come and they are beautiful, but in between them are the toys braking, the fighting between two girls who are very different, the realizations that you’ll most like not get that time to yourself you were desperately hoping for. So that’s life. Good moments, bad moments. I guess it’s what we choose to focus on that counts the most. So I choose gratitude. Gratitude for the good moments, and a hope that the bad moments are teaching us something. In the end, parenting is super hard, but today as we decorated the tree and the girls pulled out ornaments that brought back memories for them,I saw that we are building beautiful traditions that they will hopefully take with them wherever they go. Parenting is tough, but worth it! We’re building beautiful lives filled with beautiful memories. And I hope my kids are strong enough to look back at the good and the bad moments and know they were fiercely and completely loved. 







But true to real life, before there was this picture, there was this picture.

๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ
And this was before they decided to dump all of the rest of the toys out too... all over the hallway... where we needed to walk back and forth frequently. What a fantastic idea kids๐Ÿคจ. Like I said, moments. 

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