Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!

 

 

 

Of course at 2, Hardin is not at all aware of the true meaning of Christmas, but the one thing he understands is that it's Baby Jesus' birthday.  He's been singing it for weeks, telling his teachers we are having a party for Baby Jesus, etc.  That made Christmas a little extra special this year. 

One of my Grandmother Thornberry's most favorite traditions was to make Baby Jesus Cake and have all of the grandchildren sing happy birthday Christmas Eve.  I waited way too late to light the candles and the kids were sleepy, but Hardin hung in there to sing and blow out the candles.  A couple of times!

The rest of our Christmas revolved around the little kids.  Mimi was in town so we thought it would be fun for all her grands to spend the night together so she could be with them Christmas morning.  It was so much fun other than poor Mimi coming down with a stomach bug Christmas Eve, and Justin being under the weather as well. 

I really can't explain how happy Hardin is when his cousins are around, and how much more outgoing and crazy he is as well.  For the most part when he's alone he plays quietly and entertains himself.  When his best buds are here he's a silly little mess!  Watching them always makes me want to rush to have another.  He loves them so much.  His cousin Austin too. 

Santa was very good to everyone.  Hardin got tons of fire truck paraphernalia, including a huge fire truck with an operational ladder, and a full fireman suit.  He has worn that jacket constantly unless we have peeled it off for naps and baths.  Since mama returned the impulse buy bike a while ago because it was too big, he also got a well researched balance bike to replace it.  Jason got SEC Championship Tickets and socks.  I got a new camera lens and a tea kettle from Hardin. 

Santa also left an extra special note for Cawley.  It went over much better than we could have imagined when the one and only thing he asked for was broken. 

My family came over Christmas Eve, and evidently I was too busy running around to take pictures. I do have videos though.  We all had a great time and Austin and Cawley enjoyed having another "older kid" around to play with. 

The best part of this Christmas was certainly having a house full of little giggles and screams.  I am so thankful Cat & Justin brought their crew up.  I know it was a hassle, but I think we'd all agree it was worth the craziness for us to all be together.

Jason didn't even know.

Jason has no idea how my parents handled Santa/parent gifts growing up.  It's one thing that has never came up, still hasn't.  Because of that I was taken by the way we fell into the same pattern as my parents this year.  Don't tell Hardin, but until this year we rarely bought him anything.  We knew family and friends would get so much stuff we didn't think it was necessary.  Or we're cheap.  The world may never know.

Not surprisingly, I stepped right into the roll of mom and helping Santa.  We thought about what Hardin loves and about what Santa should bring him knowing he's been watching him all year.  Santa had an easy year with my kid.  Fire trucks. 

Jason on the other hand stepped right into the roll of my sweet daddy.  He thought about it for a while, and picked gifts Hardin doesn't know he wants, but will LOVE.  My dad always did that.  99% of the time he bought us some cool new electronic we'd never heard of.  He always made sure mom and Santa took care of all the request, but he went shopping by himself right before Christmas and bought the cool stuff. 

This year Hardin's daddy decided he needed a fishing pole, tackle box, and real cowboy boots.  He went to Walmart all by himself (THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN), and picked out the fishing pole and tackle box for them to use at the little lake.  He also insisted we drive to the western store in Commerce tonight to get the most adorable boots I've ever seen.  Hardin is sure to love them, and I'm sure to smile a little extra Christmas morning at Jason favoring my sweet daddy.

The only other big news is that Hardin had his Christmas party at school and is on break now until January.  The Christmas party was adorable.  I got there a little early and caught a glimpse of reading circle.  According to his teachers H is always front and center for story time, and very vocal about what book he wants them to read.  This was no surprise if you've been around here for bed time.

When the party started we made a craft; a bag of reindeer food to put out Christmas eve.  Evidently everyone feeds Santa cookies but not nearly enough folks feed his sleigh carriers.  After that we decorated a cookie.  As you can see Hardin took that very seriously.  We finished up with a book swap and called it a day.  After 40 minutes I left there feeling one thing:  guilty I didn't get his teachers bigger Target gift cards.  I'm sure every single one of those sweet two year olds are a breeze on their own.  But 10 in one room with two teachers?  THAT takes some kind of magical patience I just don't have.  Not to mention his class is 8 boys and 2 girls.  God bless teachers!

Heavy Heart

Friday was a terrible day.  I hope by time Hardin is old enough to read about the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy he shudders at the thought of it.  That he literally can't imagine anything like that ever happening.  I hope he's never heard of such a thing.  That something so awful goes back to being considered what it should be, absolutely impossible. 

Then there's the mom in me that wonders what will happen next.  And the fear in me that has seen people struggle with mental illness.  I haven't been able to turn those two things off all weekend.  I've cried, held my baby, talked to family, read the stories of each of the victims and prayed vigorously.  My heart aches. 

I've seen dozens of reminders that we should all cherish every day with our children, and of course we should, but for me its reminded me that during all of that cherishing we have a massive responsibility to teach our children right from wrong.  Help them turn to their faith above all else.  Help them understand and trust their conscience.  Help develop tools for them to control their behavior.  Help them to be kind and caring towards every person they encounter.  Help them develop and foster true friendships.  Help them become compassionate adults we want around. 

How to do those things?  I have no idea.  But we'll try. 

I certainly don't blame the parents of the shooter, I don't know anything about anything when it comes to their family.  My thoughts are based on the fact that my head wouldn't stop turning until I thought of what I could do, what we can do as a family, to help.  All I can think of is pray, love and teach my son with all I have, and love his father and cherish our marriage so that he has a happy safe home to grow up in. 

These pictures are random ones from instagram over the past few months.  I'm 100% sure I post too many pictures of him on there, but I can't resist.  And if I ever get around to it I would want them in the blog book.  Little did I know... the day after I downloaded and posted all of these my phone would be stolen.  Whew!