Goodbye 2012

Well it's New Year's Eve 2012. Time to say goodbye to the old and hello to the new. Time to also say goodbye to the "holiday season" which I have to say I'm sad about. I always look forward to this time of year. My dad and husband are around more, the lights twinkle and line our street and everyone seems to be on the same page. We had a really fun Christmas together. The kids really understood what was going on this year and we had so much fun decorating the tree and setting up the train to circle underneath! We made a countdown chain to Christmas Day and each day we turned the train on and take a link off the chain. We even downloaded a Santa Tracker to hunt him down on Christmas Eve! It is so much fun to have children and make the magic of Christmas so big again!
I was so blessed by the kids this year and it helped so much because I felt homesick for the only place I celebrated Christmas as a kid. The house on Perkins Lane in Baton Rouge where my grandmother would wait for us to pull in the yard from our 12 hour drive. A two story house that was filled to the brim with every Christmas bear ever created, every musical knick knack that played christmas carols and the most amazing thing of all...LOVE. She was truly alive at Christmas. She loved every part of it and made it so special for us each year. I miss her so much. I miss Baton Rouge. I miss the smells, the food, the LSU campus at sunset, the family that surrounded me. It's a part of me. I spent every summer of my life in Louisiana-it's a part of me. Luckily for me I have an amazing husband who understands this and is taking me to New Orleans this summer for our anniversary. He is so good to me. And I actually was able to suprise him with a fun Christmas present this year.
Every year he hints at things he would like and I try to still suprise him with which one I've chosen for him. But not this year. This year I bought a few things I knew he would like to have for his new job at work but I also let my creative side show! I made him a 12 Days of Christmas (which I have to admit I stole the idea from Pinterest--but put all my ideas into it) and have been "torturing" him with it since. It's 12 envelopes that are marked day 1 through 12 and he gets to open an envelope each day. Inside the envelope are two cards that are taped shut. One is labeled "Nice" and one is labeleed "Naughty." He has to choose only one and I will do whatever the card says. I won't give all my secrets away for the 12 days, but today he opened "Naughty" and got a 5 minute massage.....if he had picked "Nice" it would have been a 15 minute massage. It is so much fun and it's a way I get to keep Christmas going for 11 extra days! It also is driving him insane because my husband is one to not keep secrets well and doens't understand that I am rock solid in keeping mine!! :) He keeps fishing for hints but my lips are sealed!! I hope to make this a tradition I do each year for him! We also had a creative spin for the grandparents this year. We took silver chagers and painted the kids fingerprints with tempura paint. Their little fingerprints all the way around the edge of the charger looked just like christmas lights. We drew in to string the "lights" together and wrote a poem on the inside about how their fingers will only be that small for this Christmas. It was lots of fun for the kids and the grands really enjoyed a homemade gift from them!
I hope your holiday season has been filled with lots of fun memories and special gifts too. I'll leave you with a few clips of Christmas morning from our house!! Happy New Year my friends. May 2013 be a blessing to you and your families!!

'Tis the season

Last night I got to share my two "mommy" roles. I got to watch some of my beautiful dancers onstage with the middle school chorus concert I helped choreograph AND I got to see my two kiddos share the stage with them for one scene! I have been helping with the chorus concert since I was a senior in high school and my mom and I always love doing it together and having an excuse to listen to Christmas music in October--we're choreographing, we HAVE TO! ;) Needless to say I've helped with many concerts through the years and I am always so impressed how they come together with great singing and entertaining dances. The students always work hard and even after disasterous dress rehearsals they pull it together the night of the performance! The choral director is like a second mom to me and we share a special relationship! I think my mom and her have more fun than the kids do some days when they are teaching choreography and dancing around like a couple of teenagers! They give each other laughter and love, such a precious thing these days!
Eli got to make his chorus concert debut at 3 months old as baby Jesus, but this year he and HesterGrace were the children in the last scene when the chorus sang "Christmas is for Children." Some of our dancers who are in chorus also performed a lyrical dance while the kids were onstage. I felt myself tearing up because there on the stage were two products of my heart, right there, I could actually see it. I've been feeling lately like I don't know if I can do both...be a good mom and a good dance teacher. But I realized last night that's just what the devil wants me to believe. I can do both. God has given me these precious children and a love for dance that I want to share. What a blessing! I want to post pictures of last night on my mirror so when the days come where I feel like I'm failing and letting everyone around me down I can look at the picture and remember the promise God made me. He may let me bend, but He won't let me break! He won't give me more than I can take. I just have to remember to ask Him to  help me through it all.
A big thank you to Beth Kirkland and the staff at BLMS for always welcoming us into your school and letting us be a part of the "christmas magic" each year. We love watching the kids grow up through the years and hearing the 6th graders say they can't wait for their first concert! Beth does such an amazing job teaching each year and I hope she won't retire before my kids make it to middle school :) I must say I feel old some years when I see the graduating class of BLHS and think...wait they were just in the concert as Santa or Rudolph or Suzy Snowflake, but last night I really felt my age!! Last night the sweet little 6th grader who picked up Eli and took him to sit under the Christmas tree with her was one of the flower girls in mine and Matt's wedding!!!!!! Yeah, umm how did that happen?! Isn't she still 5?? It was so crazy and weird and fun at the same time! She was part of something that allowed Eli to be here today even though he wasn't even a thought on that day! Now they're sitting together under the Christmas tree! WOW! The concert was a huge success (as always) and the Elvis Frosty the Snowman stole the show!! Another one down and already looking forward to the next!!