The night we took the Christmas decorations down, I cried. Not because Christmas was over but because I thought about how it was just one more Christmas down that my babies would be babies for Christmas. I thought of how things Sumner and Anna Ruth did this year will be different next year since they will be one year older. For example, next year Anna Ruth probably won't be walking around saying "hold me, mama" a million times a day and Sumner may not be into building pretend Christmas trees and asking me to turn his imaginary Christmas light on and off over and over again. Things will be different,for sure.... I just have to keep reminding myself that with each passing "season" comes a new one that holds the potential to be better than the last.
As I was crying, I thought of how thankful I am to be able to spend so much time with them. I certainly have my fair share of regrets, and make a lot of mistakes, but one thing I want to make sure I never regret is not spending enough time with my children. So far, that is not something I feel guilty about. God has truly blessed me with a wonderful job that allows me to be with them so much, and for that I am thankful. There is no place I would rather be than with my family.
As I said earlier, this truly was a special Christmas season. We did so many fun things and made a lot of memories. I want to remember how they were at this age and all the special things we did together for the rest of my life. It really was a Christmas to remember.
Things we did
- Lights! Lights! On Thanksgiving Night! (Watching the lights turn on at the Moultrie square)
- Breakfast with Santa at church
- Tifton Christmas parade (Sumner LOVED catching the candy)
- Moultrie parade (Sumner was disappointed they didn't throw candy)
- Walking under the Christmas lighs in Moultrie on random nights
- Riding through the park in Tifton to look at the Christmas lights
- The Greening of the Church (Sumner helped pass out poinsettias for the first time)
- Fantasy of Lights at Callaway
- Making a birthday cake for Jesus and singing Happy Birthday to him.
- Wild Adventures (and they had the Christmas lights up)
- Decorating a Gingerbread House with daddy
Things I Don't Want to Forget
- Sumner and I made a Countdown to Christmas thing and he loved waking up every morning and immediately running to take a ring off and counting how many were left until Christmas.
- YaYa bought both of the kids a Mickey Mouse Christmas decoration/toy that played music. Both kids loved running through the house playing those things. It could be a little annoying to hear both of them playing different songs at the same time, but I let them do it as much as they wanted because it wasn't hurting anything, and they were having fun!
- Matthew is a gadget king and he set it up so all of our Christmas lights and trees would turn off and on with one remote. Sumner loved going through the house and turning everything on and off. It is a wonder he didn't blow them up as much as he clicked them off and on.
- Sumner's imagination went into action with everything Christmas. He built Christmas trees out of Legos and blocks. He used a pretend remote to turn them on and off. He also used old boxes and pretended like he was a Christmas tree. He asked us to pull him out and straighten out his "branches" AKA his fingers. Then he would ask us to pack him back up for next year.
- I ordered a lot of Christmas books that were centered around the true meaning of Christmas. We all enjoyed reading them every night.
Dear Sumner and Anna Ruth,
I am so thankful God answered my prayers by blessing me with the opportunity to be a mama! When I was a little girl, all I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a wife and a mother. God answered my prayers and I am happier than I ever thought I could be. I couldn't ask for anything more than to spend the holidays with our family. The little picture to the right pretty much sums up how I feel about this Christmas! The whole season has been so special, and I am sad to see it end. I hope you always remember the reason we celebrate Christmas and always strive to live a life that will be pleasing to our Lord. I pray we get to spend many more Christmas seasons together!
I love you both as high as the sky and the ocean is deep and more and more and more.
Love,
Mama
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