Oh Christmas Cards...

One of my favorite things (among many others) about this time of year is opening the mailbox each day and finding REAL mail. Hark... it's Christmas card season! I can't get them out of Todd's hands fast enough to read, and even more so if there is a "here's what we've been doing all year" letter included! I even check and re-check our pile each night, just to make sure I didn't overlook one.

All that excitement, yet every year when it comes time to make our card to send... I go through the pouty "it'll just be thrown away" phase and act like we just won't do them. This year I piddled around much longer than usual, and then pannicked Tuesday night and ordered them. Shheww, I was relieved that we wouldn't be the only family who didn't send Christmas cards this year. I had no list before ordering them and addressed them as the names came to me... total disorganization (why some of you might not have received one). I'm sorry! I know, I know Mom- next year a list (and more organization) will be in order.

Today, I got a message from one of my friends' grandmothers. You'd have to know this family to understand (a long line of major talkers), but it was three minutes worth of thanking us for the card and how it just made her day. She even ended the message with "thank you from the bottom of my heart"... wow. It wasn't anything super special, not even one of the cool letters went out with ours, but it brought her joy. Totally worth it. I love Christmas cards!

Where to start???

So, here it is… finally... my own blog. I have been reading a few for a while now and love the idea of having pages of thoughts, ideas, and memories to look back on, but I've never really felt like I have much to write about, and I get a little sweaty just thinking about the pressure to update! I have decided that I want to record the special memories our family makes and share them with whoever might like to know what we are up to... so that is what this is all about. I will warn you: I am NOT a super awesome writer, I WILL make grammatical errors, and unless you can handle major gushing over our precious baby girl, read no further. Welcome to a snapshot of our life as "The Kelly 4".

My daughter is one. I have already noticed that we share some similarities in our personality. We like the action, lots of people and stuff going on, we don't want to miss a thing, but we also don't always like to be at the center of it. We are a-ok to be amidst the madness, just don't MAKE us participate. Put a child in daycare and this is the recipe for no sleep. On an average day, she naps 15 minutes. If you don't have children, this is craziness. Most kids are getting 2 or 3 hours of naptime in... not our little people watcher! The upside is that she sleeps like a champ at night... most of the time.

This week we had a couple off nights (teething maybe, I don't know). Call me crazy, but sometimes I look forward to nights that she wakes up (there are also times I'd like to throw the baby monitor through the window). I love the extra time I get to spend snuggling my sweet girl, studying her little round face, and praying over her. I know that all-to-soon the days of rocking her to sleep will be gone, so I cherish every chance I get. I went upstairs to find her standing in her crib reaching for me. As I got closer it turned into all out arm flapping/grunting excitement. I picked her up and she quickly found a spot to cuddle into and was out cold. Yep, she went from practically jumping up and down to sound asleep in a matter of seconds! Why can't I do that?! My girl just wanted her mama to hold her and be there. : )

As I rocked "baby E", I was reminded that sometimes that's all our Heavenly Father wants, too- just time with us. No special books, eloquent words, etc. required... just me, as I am. So thankful for the little reminders He sends through a mid-night wake up call. That's it... big story, not much of a point... it might be a trend in this blog.

Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."