a christmas with no tree

November has left me harried. I peeked back at the two pages that represented the month while holding my breath thankful that I came out alive. There were a whole three boxes that were blank. That means 27 of the remaining boxes were chock full. The month started out with a bang as we uprooted our first home of 4 years and moved to our dream forever home; a homey updated multi level sitting on 1.5 acres with a fenced in back yard and pasture. I can still remember walking through it during the open house and only minutes after setting foot here I tapped Brady and whispered to him "I'm not sure how this is all going to pan out, but one thing I  know is this is home" Fast forward a few busy/exciting/stressfull months and we are now here and getting settled. 

I am a homebody. I'm not sure when this started, but I love to be home. I would say I'm 70% introverted and 30% extroverted. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those wierd people who never likes to leave, I just love to be in my own element (while wearing yoga pants and t-shirts) November had us make the 4 hour (painful) drive to Minneapolis not once, but twice. The latter trip being for a cirque de soleil concert with family. The first trip was strictly business...shopping for the girls and Vikings game for the boys. The silver lining of this traveling was this...pottery barn twice in one month. I now know what a kid in a candy store really feels like. I exhibited self control and only bought 2 things, a few cribsheets for Gavin and a Christmas gift for my favorite sister.

Next came Thanksgiving and a 20 month old who decided to boycott his nap for the day. We split the day in half with each family so needless to say there was too much going on for my little lamb to sleep. We tried multiple times to lay him down to no avail, he would sign and say "nigh-nigh all done, up!" with his chubby little outstretched arms and I couldn't say no. Seems brother is more extroverted than introverted and he is re-energized with being around people. I am loving his blooming personality and vocabulary. He is learning and using new words daily, common ones are "All done, mom-mom-show" (Translated: Mommy is all done with her shower) "May pot all done" (Translated: Maya (our dog) is done doing her business outside (or on the bathroom rug) which is neither here nor there. Have I mentioned how much I love her? A personal favorite of mine is Gavin running up to me with a book in his hand "Mom-mom siiit" (Translated: Mommy sit down so I can sit on your lap and you can read to me) Every morning I wake up to a very happy Gavin yelling "Moooommm!!!" from his crib. If Brady is already at work he always says "Daddy hwuck bye-bye?" (Translated: Did Daddy leave for work in his truck already?" Turns out Gavin may be a dentist as he is ub-sessed with brushing his teeth. I think we at least do it 4 times a day. He will find me in our bathroom and get up on his little step stool and repeat over and over "Mom-Mom bruuussshh please" The newest word he learned came this morning as he woke up 20 minutes earlier than normal so I decided to go in and rock him for awhile and he was humming and singing some and all the sudden looked at me and said "Mom-Mom WHAT??" and just died laughing. I had no idea a little one saying "what" could be so hilarious. He enunciates it with perfection and seems to use it correctly. Another common word is "Tuu" (Transalted: Thank-you)

One more adorable story - we went shopping to Hy Vee and they now have these little green carts meant for kids to push and since we were both there we let Gavin go ahead with it. He followed us so well, said hi to everyone he met, and kept his cart empty until aisle 2. "Choo-choo num nums hwacks!!!" (Thomas the Train fruit snacks)(duh!) He then proceded to pile not one but six boxes of fruit snacks in his cart and went on his merry little way. Too hilarious.

The end of the month has left me trying to decorate for Christmas. As if it isn't enough to move right before the holidays and try to have some "regular" decorations out. If I'm honest this really got me stressed. We decided to sell our Christmas tree and decor before moving and I really regret the decision. While it sounded nice to "start over since our tree was too big" I now have this big bare empty spot in our living room that is screaming to have a luscious tree there. Problem is I'm too dutch to pay full price for a new one along with lights and ornaments. So it looks like our first Christmas here will be without a tree unless there is some divine intervention or we decide to go with a real one. I am okay with this though, I will be gracious towards myself in this regard. We will still have a very meaningful Christmas with or without a tree.

December is looking to be slightly more kind as we have two weekends open so far. My prayer is that we will make time to bask in the wonder of the birth of our King. Happy December everyone.