Christmas Recap

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

The Gould clan definitely did :)

There were lots of family parties and lots of cookies and lots of presents.

So. Many. Presents.

I’m all about keeping Christmas simple because to me it’s about so much more than gift giving. In fact, that’s not even the part of Christmas that I really enjoy.

I enjoy the quiet moments sitting by the light of the tree. The tumblers of eggnog dusted with nutmeg. The timeless carols playing from the record player in the living room. The special cookies that I only make once a year. The warm, fuzzy all-too-predictable holiday movies on TV. The time spent with family that we don’t see nearly enough throughout the year. The warm buttery biscuits topped with bacon, eggs and gravy on Christmas morning. The nativity story from the book of Luke.

The simple things that you can’t buy.

That’s the stuff I love about Christmas.

We enjoyed all of those things this year and it was especially fun because Grace is so much more aware of everything. She had fun participating in all of it with us and it was even more magical watching it all through her eyes. I can only imagine that next year will be even more exciting for her (and baby sister who will be almost 1!).

Oh baby sister….

She’s quite comfy in the womb apparently because she’s not giving any signs of coming out. My official due date isn’t until Monday so I shouldn’t be feeling impatient.

But I am.

I SOOO am.

Because I was induced with Grace, I had a baby in my arms at 38 weeks. It was unexpected so I never had a chance to get antsy. I remember being really disappointed that I had to be induced because I really wanted everything to be as “natural” as possible, but for a high strung chick like me I think it was a blessing in disguise.

I have to say that 39.5 weeks is a lot more uncomfortable than 38 weeks. At this point I’ve been pregnant so long that I can’t even remember what it feels like not to be. And the wacky part of my brain is convinced that I’ll be pregnant forever.

Ridiculous, I know.

I’m very grateful to have carried my little girl to full term and that everything is looking good. That’s worth all the discomfort in the world and I don’t take it for granted.

With Christmas behind us, we’re now soaking up the remains of the holiday by enjoying the tree, decorations, cinnamon candle and leftover cookies before everything gets boxed up and put away till next year. We’re also savoring the time with Andy who is still on break for about another week.

Grace is having fun with her new toys although there are so many that she’s still a little overwhelmed by it all. She’ll start playing with one thing and see another and move on to that and then see another and move on again. At a certain point she grabs her blankie and climbs up on my lap to snuggle and read. It’s like she’s overloaded and needs to just chill out with a good, old-fashioned book.

I’m not exactly sure how she even managed to end up with so much stuff! We bought her 3 gifts which seemed like a good number for Christmas morning, but I didn’t take into account her stocking and the grandparent gifts and aunt & uncle gifts and great aunt and uncle gifts. It amounted to so much that I’ve got some of it tucked away to bring out in a few weeks when things slow down.

I’m blessed by the generosity of our families but I’m struggling with how to keep the holiday meaningful outside of the present aspect. Grace was so into opening present after present that even when she was surrounded by mounds of wrapping paper and tissue, she kept asking for “nother one present”.

I know she wasn’t trying to be greedy, but it’s human nature to have an insatiable appetite for stuff. And at only two and a half years old, it’s really hard to convey deep concepts of thankfulness and contentment.

I just long for her to cling to the important and everlasting things in life rather than the temporal stuff that we all get tangled up in.

I suppose we still have years ahead of us to help her along that path. But I can tell you that I definitely want to scale things back next year. Even if it means we don’t buy much for her or baby sister.

Here are some pictures from our Christmas morning…

I’m planning to get back in the groove of posting recipes and other random daily happenings, so stay tuned for all of that plus a baby girl announcement hopefully soon!