Oh Christmas. You were quite loud and busy, all the while joyful and exciting, but on Christmas Eve when there were so many little cousins running around, and I had so many presents to prepare, you gave me those quiet little moments I so desperately wanted with my babies while I tucked them in bed.
Hyrum kept waking up from all the noise, so I turned on some instrumental Christmas hymns on my phone and picked him up from his crib to hold him close to me in our dark room. It was all we both needed to bring that peaceful Christmas feeling. After a few minutes I laid him back in his crib with his little grey elephant and away he turned, all snug in his bed.
Then it was time to get Ava ready for bed. After her teeth were brushed and her jammies on, she nestled into her bright orange sleeping bag and in her little voice asked if I would stay with her for a little bit. And despite my tired eyes and Santa checklist, I did.
So with the instrumentals playing our Christmas lullabies, we cuddled together. In that sweet stillness I was given another quiet moment to wrap my arms around my little one and reflect on the sacred significance of the holy night so long ago when our Savior was born. I felt so grateful, so at peace. And that was just what I needed. #mamanotes
I love this video about Christmas. It’s brings it all back to what it’s supposed to be.
We stayed in a brand new house for part of the time we were in Utah, so Jake thought it would be nice to bring our own Christmas tree from home. I laughed when he first suggested packing up our seven foot tree, hauling it one thousand miles to Utah, and setting it all up again. But he did it! And we all thoroughly enjoyed it. It reminded me of the time he wanted to bring our ice cream drumsticks to the beach. We paid more in dry ice than we did for the ice cream, but it was definitely a treat we’ll remember!
He’s mostly practical, but he’ll go the extra mile to make things special. I really like that.
Also, I haven’t been able to edit many of our family videos lately, (which are some of Jake and Ava’s favorite things to watch) so I edited together a little video of our Christmas together in Houston last year as a little surprise for Jake. It was our first Christmas without our families, and even though we missed being with them, we really loved the quiet simplicity of having Christmas with just the three of us (Hyrum was born 5 days later.) I’m sure it will be a Christmas that we always remember.
We arrived at my parents’ house on the evening of the 19th. Ava’s eyes lit up as we pulled up to their house, wasting no time running up to them with big hugs. She ran from room to room and up and down the stairs piecing together her memory of the place she dearly loved.
Sunday morning we ate eggs and cinnamon rolls and drove through the drifting snow to attend church with Jake’s parents. We walked into his home ward 20 minutes early and sat on a bench toward the front. When Ava saw her grandpa come and sit down in the pew a few rows over, completely unaware of us, she ran over and sat down right next to him.
With a quiet gasp of surprise and his smile beaming, he wrapped his arm around her and kissed her forehead. He looked back at me with that same smile, and I could feel the love he had for this little girl. She smiled and closed her eyes for a moment, seemingly so content and perfectly satisfied that she was once again reunited with all her grandparents. She has missed them so. #mamanotes
We love road trips. We love the time together, the hotel stays, the snacks, and the views. We took the route from North Dakota through South Dakota and Wyoming, following the sunset and greeting the sunrise along windy roads and dusty white fields. We loved it.
And as you can probably tell, if we ever stopped for me to take a scenic picture, we would probably arrive hours later. So thanks to fast shutter speeds and car mates that don’t mind an occasional winter blast through the window, we can remember the pretty scenes that graced our windshield on our trip.