I woke up the day after Christmas and said, “It’s over.” All the decorating, partying, traveling, shopping, eating, visiting is over for the year. And as much as I love the Christmas season, I’m always happy for it to go too.
Our first Christmas as a family of 5 really could not have gone better. We traveled to see my extended family in and around Maryland the weekend before Christmas. It was a very, very long ride that I was tense about. Three kids for 9 hours, two of which like to argue? Yeah, I was a little nervous. But they totally blew me away. Jac0b traveled really, really well and was always up for whatever we were doing or whomever’s house we were going to next. He amazes me how resilient he is. So many changes and new people and he just goes along with us. It doesn’t pass my attention that transition and new environments and people could be a huge issue for some. So thankful we don’t have that in the mix. The kids had their moments, you know, but our trip went really well.
Back at home, we had a wonderful Christmas morning together. He went straight for the biggest presents and was truly ecstatic by a few. His reactions were so much fun. I especially think he loved his new soccer goal for the backyard. The girls, too. Emma’s favorite was her karaoke machine and Lexi loves her new tablet. Their faces and reactions are my favorite part of Christmas.
I wasn’t sure how to handle his birth family for the holiday but I decided to let him lead. If he had questions or brought them up, we’d talk about it or pray for them or whatever seemed right but it never came up.
In fact, the last few weeks since our finalization have truly seemed to settle everyone out. It helps that we’ve been together full-time since then. The stability has been good.
I’m very happy to welcome the new year this week. As much as 2014 has blessed us, it also has been very hard. I feel like right now is such a good time to make a clean cut and start 2015 strong and stable as a new family.
I’m enjoying another few days off from work before I really get into this swing of things again. I’ll be back here this week with some lessons I’m carrying over from the year, perhaps my favorite books and perhaps my goals for the year.
I hope your Christmas was fantastic. Would love to hear your favorite present or moment! My favorite is Lexi opening a horn for her bike and yelling, “I got a honker!!”