I. love. Holidays. Especially this time of year. I have struggled with writing lately, partly because I don’t have a lot of energy in the evenings after work and getting stuff done at home. Partly because I keep comparing myself to everyone else I consider a tremendous writer/blogger. I don’t feel like I’m as good. I try to measure myself up and fall like 3 cups short. Kinda like when you forget to buy milk, only have a few drops, and realize you can’t make cookies after mixing the first 5 ingredients? Bummer. Or, for simplicity’s sake, you pour the muffin mix out of the bag, add the eggs, and then realize you don’t have the milk? I start. Then I can’t finish. I always dream up ideas – “oh, I can write about that.” Sometimes I even start a draft. One of those drafts I’m pulling up at the beginning of 2012. It will be monumental for me. It’s way cool, I think. Probably because so far it holds the visual element and no words.  One day they’ll come out. Hopefully next week.  The lull in writing comes, partly, too, in the realization that I need more “chill out” time. I’ve gotten more of my fair share since I’ve found out I’m pregnant, and gladly so, but this past summer (before I was pregnant) I realized that, for my sanity, I just needed to chill out a bit in the evenings instead of worrying about always  needing to do something. I am that way, you know. I want to go go go – or even do, do do, which sometimes involves staying home. My husband is the more logical half of us – while he loves an adventure, he’s quite content (and needs) to sit at home and do nothing but relax. I’m the one that is always thinking of what needs to be done-whether at home or somewhere else. So I’ve tried to be more aware of this and tried to que it down a bit, but I know I still have a long way to go. All this to say – I’ve been trying to relax a bit more than normal. Which means some priorities have shifted. I don’t want to lose priority of this blog, though – especially with a little one on the way. I’ve been dreaming of writing and blogging about my child(ren) and cannot wait to share our bundle of joy with the world. I’ve also been slacking on the personal photo taking lately. As in, I take pictures of everyone BUT my family and myself. I have 2 photos of my pregnant belly. 2. This is crazy. Must. Take. Another. Today. I want to chronicle my belly growth, and luckily, with the exception of this week, there have really been only 2 noticeable change weeks. Add this week, snap a photo, and there’s 3 pages to a photo book. I can’t wait. I’ve been keeping a “journal” of sorts, letters to baby-in-my-belly, so that counts as something, right?!?

This all started about the Holidays, right?

All this blabbing to say (or eventually say), Holidays mean the world to me. Family. Family. Family. Food. Food. Food. It’s a wonderful time of celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior. This year was the first year I didn’t attend a Christmas Eve service, as we celebrated Christmas in Orlando that evening with family. Come Christmas morning, we attended the Interfaith service where John works. It was very personal and wonderfully moving (and also fun!), and added a really nice touch to our day and celebrations. So, it was also a year of new Christmas schedules and traditions. I love that we get to cultivate what Christmas means to the kids and our future children. We will have lots of traditions – that is for sure! It was a wonderful holiday in our hearts and in our home. I couldn’t help but think that next year things will be very different – in a really, really, good way.

Anyway, enough chatting – here are some photos from our wonderful weekend!

This post is for you, Hol!