Christmas Eve in SC 2011

Crazy that Christmas Eve is here:) Our family has had to do some major psyching ourselves up for a Christmas in SC. The kids are not effected as much as Josh and I, but its still weird. We have always been in snow filled MI for Christmas. I have never missed Christmas morning with my mom and dad. I guess its a miracle that I have managed to miss that part of being a grown up. The part where you are supposed to start your own Christmas traditions at your own house. I have always childishly held on to the magic of Christmas morning at my mom and dad's house. God has apparently decided that it's time for me to grow up. This year it's Christmas in SC unlike any other. No snow and not even cold weather. It was 70 degrees yesterday. It is supposed to be colder today, but it will still be vastly different from the weather we would be bundling up for in MI. I am very thankful to have family here in SC that we can get together and celebrate with. Not having mom and dad with us will definitely be hard, but we are determined to make everything fun and magical in our own way. Christmas is still Christmas. We still celebrate our Lord's birth the same as always. Josh and I are prepared to fill the Christmas tree with gifts from santa while the kids sleep tonight. I have baked goodies and planned fun stuff and attempted to make this our own magical Christmas. It will be magical and memorable, though different. I keep reminding myself that our kids will look back on this one day and wish they were here instead of where they are. Its crazy to imagine really. They will see being at our house for the holidays as special as we see being in MI. I have a huge responsibility to make this memorable!! With all these crazy thoughts written down, I feel it may be a jumbled mass. Thanks for reading and I will keep you posted as to the firsts of our OWN Christmas day:)

Christmas cleaning?!?!

Well today started out quite interestingly. JJ started complaining of a stomach ache, and I could not figure out if he was faking or not. Unfortunately, he has learned to fake, and I am still hoping that is all it is for today. I HATE stomach bugs and poor JJ seems to catch them all. I always end up coming down with it soon after he gets it, so as soon as I hear 'my tummy hurts' the anxiety of a long week sets in. Hopefully today's anxiety is all for nothing! So after this announcement this morning, I decided that the best way to make it through the day without worrying or hovering over him was to keep myself very busy. I did a few things throughout the house and then got really brave. Our guest bathroom is also the kids' bathroom. The caulking around the tub was not done very neatly before we moved in, and it has bothered me since. Sadly, we have lived in this house for 5 years, and I just got around to working on it:) It had one of those nice white sticky rings around it to hide the actual caulking but the white ring was starting to detach and needed replaced too so...I got really brave and decided to tear it all apart and do it over. Mind you, I am not a handyman at all so I am very happy for Google at times like these. A few hours after the start of my project, my arms desperately needed  a rest so JJ and I took of for Lowe's to get some supplies. (I brought the bucket just in case!) We got home, and I continued working on taking the old caulk off. It was some stubborn stuff and my forearms are now killing me from all of the chipping away! I got it off though and after thoroughly cleaning the area I bravely applied the new caulk. It is drying now, and I think it looks pretty good! I hope my husband agrees when he gets home. Silly me did not realize that it takes a good 24-36 hours for the caulk to fully dry. OOPS! We will all be bathing for a few nights in order to make sure its good and dry. I'm pretty proud of myself. After years of seeing that nasty stuff, I finally got brave enough to do something about it! I guess our Christmas guests will appreciate it too:)

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas:)

I tried to get cute pictures of the kids for a Christmas picture but they just weren't cooperating. This one is pretty cute and is still in the running:) We had so much fun with putting up all of our decorations and listening to Christmas music! I love this time of year. If you ask me, Christmas just brings a certain amount of magic with it. It's almost like the pulling out of winter coats and sweaters and the decoration of an evergreen tree just magically brings an extra ounce of happiness to everyone's step.

We got all bundled up on Friday night to see the big tree lighting at our local university and then again on Saturday to go to the Christmas parade. The kids enjoyed every minute, and it was a great way to kick off the Christmas season! I have been wrapping presents and buying gifts like crazy and cannot wait for Christmas morning!