Merry Christmas

I absolutely love Christmas. I love everything about it. The nativity, the music, the decorations, the food, the traditions, the parties, the tree, the lights, the cookies , visits to Santa, Christmas Eve Pajama's,the giving, the getting, the anticipation, EVERYTHING.

This year things were a bit different. Our home was in a boxed chaos, mess everywhere. So to try and bring the spirit into our home I set the tree up amidst the mess. It did help, kinda. It took up half our living room. I don't know what it is, but if you've seen A Garfield's Christmas special you'll understand. the "oohhh, Ahhhh" moment.

This year because of our circumstances Michael and I decided not to exchange gifts. That was hard for me. Not necessarily not getting anything( although a few of our traditions would be greatly missed) but the not giving part. I love shopping for gifts and finding that perfect something or somethings and seeing the look on the faces Christmas morning. We were very blessed this year. We had great meals with Family and gifts were in abundance from every direction. I was humbled when from our church the Sunday before Christmas was delivered a box full of Christmas goodies and food and gifts for Cameron. More than we could have ever hoped for. We were truly blessed indeed. So many times I wanted to cancel Christmas from our home, because of the black cloud I felt over me, but time and time again the Lord showed me what was really important. Those "tender mercies" from letters from my brother on his mission, to visits from friend and family and even a few unexpected guess mad "my days merry and bright"
I think the reason this time of year is so great is because of who we are celebrating. All those extras are bonuses but it is the Spirit of Christ that makes it all worth while. It makes everything that much more meaningful. And I AM SO GRATEFUL I got to experience the real spirit of Christmas firsthand this year.


For Christmas Eve we drove down with The Cobb's for Christmas Eve in Picture Butte.
It was a nice time. Terrie arranged a delicious Greek fest .


Santa came and brought Cameron a cozy coupe. He went straight to it and would not get out.......

.......not to open his stocking........


.....and barely to open his other gifts....
It was so cute! He kept looking up and giggling.
Thanks Santa!

When Cameron did finally come out, and discovered the rest of his toys, although the ripping of the paper was pretty cool, He couldn't decide which to play with so he took shifts, moving on every couple of minutes.


Cameron's gift to me. A "Why I love my Mommy" Craft.
I love it!


Next stop to Omi and Opa's for Breakfast and Gifts.
Cameron thoroughly enjoyed the whipped cream, who needs waffles?

Great Grandma and the little ones.


That's the end of my pictures. Got caught up in the day I guess. We had a great time hanging out with Family and playing games and eating way too much. Cameron slept more than 3 hours for his nap too.

I love this time of year. I hope everybody else's Christmas was just as great!

The move from H*$#

So it's been awhile. I've calmed down a bit. At one point I thought I was going to have to be committed. So the day of the move November 30th was a horrible one. You can count on Southern Alberta and it's wind to mess everything up. The wind was so bad that there was a tow truck ban and the radios said if you're stupid enough to go out, get yourself unstuck, nobody's coming to help. Which is exactly what happened to us. Nobody came and helped. So we parked the truck as close to the house as we could (after getting it stuck once and later three more times) and Michael for 14 hours carried boxed and furniture from the house to the truck while I watched Cameron and tried to clean the rooms being emptied. Poor Michael was so sore and tired and even then some stuff had to be left behind because he and I were not strong enough to lift them. Like my Piano. I'm so sad!
We finally "finished" at midnight. And because of the exhaustion but mostly the road conditions, we could not drive to Calgary that night. Which caused a whole new string of problems. One Michael was supposed to start paper delivery that morning but couldn't and It would mean returning a late U- haul truck. (which is a whole other horrible mess)
Luckily help was ready when we arrived and the unloading was a lot nicer than the loading. But alas moving from a House to a half duplex. We have too much stuff. The problem, I like my stuff and I DO NOT want decide what has to stay in storage and what decorations/pictures can't be displayed. The first two weeks after the move were very dark for me. The circumstances which brought us to Calgary suck and I was just not seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I had a break down at least once a day mostly more, I felt lost and confused. I thought moving to Calgary was going to give me a new bright start, I didn't feel it, I didn't see it. Things just kept going wrong. Although I do have to add that when you are in a dark funk it is way easier to see the negative and harder then hard to see the positive but I am proof that the positive is there you just have to look for it. As a friend who visited me put it, look for the "tender mercies of the Lord".
Adding insult to injury, The U-Haul got stuck in less than 6 inches of snow. The tires were balder than bald and U-Haul the company was screwing us over. Personally I really don't want to get into it, if you want to know I'll tell you. But to make a long story short. They finally came and picked their truck up but sent us a bill for nearly $800.00. Um I don't think so! That saga is not yet complete.

Anyways here we are a month later. Things are improving. We have amazing support from Family and Friends more than I could ever have expected. We feel very loved and blessed!
Cameron however is thriving here, he loves our new home, and he loves being around so much Family. He loves his cousins and his Omi and Opa and knows their names and expects his jacket and shoes when he hears them! He's taking two naps a day plus sleeping through the night (well currently that's been interrupted due to teething and a cold).
I still miss the small town and my friends down south but I can see this is where we're meant to be.




Cameron loved the Jungle Gym of boxes



Helping Daddy with the packing away of his toys



With the constant in and out, Cameron did not want to be left behind, so for a good hour or so he sat in his stroller by the door. He refused to come out. I finally had to pull him out due to froxen fingers and toes.


The sink is a lot easier to clean than a full glass shower, so for Cameron's last bedtime in our House, he got the sink.