"Rockin" around the Christmas tree

This seriously had us belly laughing. Seeing Campbell playing the drums is my absolutely favorite.

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Bare necessity of Christmas

Christmas is a necessity.  There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves.  ~Eric Sevareid

I ran across this quote and loved it. Christmas is truly a necessity in my life. It feeds my soul in more ways that I can possibly describe. 

Christmas is a feeling of pure happiness. 

A happiness that no doubt can be contained. 

It's so contagious that it's part of your aura. 

It's a feeling that memories are being made while you're in the midst of it. 

You know when you're in the moment that you'll look back and think...Someday, we'll look back and think about how these were the days.   

So what is this "something else besides ourselves?" It's several things. It's the stranger that walks up without being asked to make a silly face behind the camera so that my very quickly fading children will look. 

That "something else" is enjoying the small things. Candy cane swirls....

Wagon rides and smiles that they bring. 

Piggyback rides, and hoping that they'll never outgrow wanting to hold your hand.  

Curiosity of things new and old and definitely of things familiar and the joy they bring.

That reminder of "something else" becomes so obvious at Christmas. It's not that you deny it the rest of the year, but its spirit is so undeniable when winter creeps in and the warmness of your heart grows bigger. It practically slaps you in the face. 

You know just by looking at what you have, that God is undeniably in your life even when things might not be going exactly your way.

And boy does life taste sweeter because of God. 

So once again, we took about million shots (ummm, can you tell?) but I was pretty happy with how the Christmas card turned out. Not too bad for a couple of nonprofessional photographers. 

 

Merry Christmas from your TexasMacks!

Portable North Pole

If you have a child that really is into Santa or even if they're not, then you really need to check out the Portable North Pole. It proves that Santa knows everything about each boy and girl. He has a book to prove it with some very important information including pictures of them and milestones that they experienced over the year.

Our boys were completely mesmerized when they were able to watch their videos and they want to watch it everyday, multiple times a day! Here's Nolan's message from Santa.

Santa must know that my toddler can't pay attention as long so he's personalized message is shorter and was just the right length. Here's the video for Campbell.

And here's the boys' reactions when they watched for the first time.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The boys make Christmas that much more special seeing it through their eyes. I love living vicariously through them.

Phone call to Santa

Behavior this time of year seems to be its best. With our Elf on the Shelf, Pickles, and knowing that I have Santa on speed dial. I can pretty much get what I want with a quick conversation to Pickles and just acting like I'm going to call Santa. That usually does the trick.

Over Thanksgiving break, I decided that we were going to do potty training boot camp or as Campbell calls it, "Boop camp." I can't believe that I got him trained in three days. Never in a million years would I have believed it after every hair pulling moment I went through to potty train Nolan.

There were accidents... A LOT the first day and I even wondered if it was too soon but by day four we were accident free. We've had random accidents here and there but overall, it's been a very quick and easy transition.

So in an effort to not always use Santa as a threat, I called Santa so Campbell could brag for once. Granddad, um I mean "Santa," was great and for once I actually caught it on film. Gosh, I love this kid.

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Santa Claus is coming to town

It's been a yearly tradition that we go downtown and see Santa in front of the Christmas tree that blends in with the skyscrapers. The lights bounce off the glass of the buildings and it may not be Rockefeller Plaza, but it absolutely will make you take a long glance and admire its beauty. It definitely beats waiting hours in a mall.

And so far to date, this Santa is as real as it comes both in physical appearance and his spirit. The anticipation of waiting in line is hard to contain. We practiced what we were going to tell Santa and I was a little nervous about how Campbell was going to act this year.



Nolan is a pro at this by now. He and Santa are pretty much BFFs. I mean the kid wants to be his elf. I'd say he's his #1 fan.

I love how Santa really takes his time to listen to the kids. Nolan asked him what his favorite cookies are for Christmas Eve. Just in case you want to get it right, they're sugar cookies, of course!

 

Campbell was awesome. At first he wanted to sit on my lap but by the time it was time to say good-bye, Santa got some love. I think it was just jitters from being in the presence of such a celebrity. Either that or he was a little ashamed that Santa knew about his rough morning at school.

And here's the one that goes in the scrapbook.

What you may or may not know about me is that I worked at Pier 1 Imports corporate office for six years as an assistant buyer right after college. On our way out of town we discovered that Pier 1 decorated their landscaping into a winter wonderland. It was so beautiful and definitely stopped traffic.

 
How much does our family love Christmas and its magic? This much...

Visiting Santa and looking at Christmas lights...check!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Obnoxious is the only word that could possibly describe me when it comes to Christmas. Oh yes, I'm one of those lunatics that starts listening to Christmas music when Thanksgiving hasn't even made its appearance. There's no doubt that I love Thanksgiving but there's not exactly a bounty of Thanksgiving songs out there on the radio.

My week off at Thanksgiving had me feeling like I was on speed. I was doing my best impression of the Tasmanian Devil. It was exhilarating getting so much accomplished with scrapbooking, finishing the playground, and painting. But decorating for Christmas takes a new level of energy. I'm so excited when I open the first box and then about half-way through it, I think to myself that it's entirely way too much work when we're usually the only ones that see it.

The best part was that Nolan really got into decorating the tree this year. Who cares if he hasn't exactly gotten down spacing out the ornaments and he puts them all on the same branch. I just love how when I unwrapped an ornament that I would hear a squeal followed by, "Oh, I remember that ornament! That one is my favorite!" I had this mom moment where I thought, "Oh my goodness, we're really making memories!"

Nolan actually stayed interested in decorating the tree at least 30 minutes. That's some good stamina for a 5 year old!

 Campbell was interested too. His attention span? Probably 3 minutes...tops.

Stockings were hung by the chimney with care. Target oh Target, why did you stop carrying these stockings? I'm still holding onto to hope that they'll go retro and start selling them again so we can get Campbell a matching one.

 

You remember so much about Christmas as a child. I wish to instill that same magic, that same love for all things good this time of year in my children. It's a lot of pressure!

So in the midst dealing with tangled lights, styrofoam, and sweat, my thoughts of "Why try?" are quickly answered when I see my childrens' faces. My 5 year old's face that already remembers ornaments from the year before, and I see my toddlers eyes light up in perfect synchronization when I turn on the Christmas tree lights. I look at their face and I simply say...THAT'S why.

Give thanks

Thanksgiving came at a really good time this year for me. This year it came to me in a new way. One of those we've-sure-been-through-a-lot-this-year-but-life-is-still-good kind of ways. Some of it I share with you, some of it I still hold onto.

I feel like this blog is a pretty good perspective of our life. I give you the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truth. But my biggest truth in our family is definitely love. There might be screaming, tantrums, tears, brief moments of sadness, and a messy house, but one thing that there is no doubt about is love.

The kind of love where little jammies and cold toes are welcomed in bed under the covers just in time to start the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The kind of love where you know that you can wear what you wanna wear and have all the self confidence in the world that you are the strongest man alive in boots. Who cares if they're technically girls boots?!



The same kind of love where you suffer through the bitter cold so your mama can get that stupid picture every year in front of the sweetgum tree that peaks perfectly on Thanksgiving day no matter when that day falls in November.

Speaking of suffering through more pictures, how 'bout these adorable hats made by Nolan?

 
The same love that no matter how much they may fight, they still love being around each other and are best friends.



The kind of love that has you driving over the river and through the woods....

 

 

A kind of love that only homemade food can convey-one that your belly full understands.

A kind of love that is shown not just by words but by action...even if it's sneaky.

Yea so it's been a rough year in the family health-wise but I'd say that the biggest blessing is that we're all here, we're all family, and most importantly...we've got a whole lotta love.