Giving Thanks

I am a big believer that blogs should consist of lots of pictures and little writing (because that's how I read blogs. I scroll through the pics and mostly skim whatever you wrote!) But I have some things on my mind. So here is where I shall write it.

I am feeling incredibly happy today. I've had my up and down moments but today I feel awesome.

Being a step parent is hard. Its hard when kids don't like you. Even Carter wants his dad a lot of the time. The change from one kid to 4 is hard. Living in an apartment (after you had a house) is hard. Living in a tiny 3 bedroom apartment with 4 kids is WAY hard. Family dynamic is hard. I get overwhelmed at times. I stress. I act crazy. Sometimes I look at my life and wonder what is going on.

We also have a lot of fun. I relish my time alone with James. I enjoy the children when we are all together. (or just a few of us) I try to let go of the little things. I feel blessed. James brings something to my life I can't even explain. It's an incredible completeness and happiness. 

This Thanksgiving was much different from my usual. But I was happy in a different way. As always I felt so blessed.

The day after Thanksgiving I kick into Christmas mode and I LOVE it. I hate Grinch types that bring me down. I hate it when people blame commercialism for their dislike of this special season. Christmas is what you make it. If you turn your children into spoiled brats who care about nothing but how much money you spend on their presents, well that is no one's fault but your own. With that in mind, I love buying gifts, I love seeing their excitement. It can be hard to keep things under control but I am committed to making Christmas about something else in my family. My best memories of Christmas are the moments not the presents. Baking with my mom, delivering goodie plates to neighbors, christmas lights, scones and hot chololate, service, going to grandma's on Christmas eve.... I recall only a few gifts. But I love these memories.

I am doing an "Activity Advent Countdown" with the kids. Every day we will do a different activity which I have customized based on which kids will be with us on which days (and I don't even know, I have to guess, which was a challange, but we'll work it out!)

We are doing elf on the shelf, starting tonight and I could not be more excited about it! I look forward to sharing all of this on the blog!

Yesterday we went to dinner at James' mom's house. When we got home I had planned some Turkey Games for the kids, they had been excited about it all day which made me happy.

They loved our "Don't eat Frank" game at Halloween so I had planned a "Don't eat Tom the Turkey" for this event. I hit a little snag in that I didn't have a working printer so I stayed up the night before drawing turkeys for the game board. I don't draw. AT ALL. Like, I can barely handle stick figures. And stick turkeys just don't really work. Thanks google for your turkey drawing tutorials. :)

Next we played "Pin the Gobble On The Turkey" Now before you judge me, please know that I understand it's called a Wattle not a Gobble, but we call it a gobble at our house. Also did you know that the purpose of a male (tom) turkey's wattle is to attract females while also scaring off the other males? Yup.

We all look super creepy in this picture. LOL Photo FAIL! Josh ducked down so all you see is his foot. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!