home for the holidays

Last Friday I was sitting my living room in New York enjoying my Christmas tree one last night. Tonight all my earthly belongings are on a moving truck on their way to Georgia. We're no longer occupants of the NY house and we can't get into the Georgia house until Monday. Much like Mary and Joseph, we are homeless travelers and there is no place for us to rest our heads.

That's not entirely true. Annabelle will always find a place to rest her head.

Last Saturday we said goodbye to our house. I cried buckets because I hate change and Annabelle comforted me with statements such as, "Why should we say goodbye to our house? That's silly." I can always count on her to be sympathetic! We left the house and started the drive to Massachusetts for Christmas. It was snowing and we didn't go over 45mph for hours. It took us 7 hours to reach the NY/MA line. Normally the whole trip takes 7-8 hours but it took over 11. Annabelle was so good. She listened to stories and watched more shows than I normally like but anything to survive. We made a pit stop at Chickfila at 9pm to burn off some energy. AB burned off energy. I wanted to fall asleep on the play area bench. 

Fast forward to Christmas Eve with all our relatives. I so love Christmas Eve next door. It's changed some over the years as people have died or joined the family but overall its the same. We always sing Christmas carols before opening gifts. It's a different order every year but Grandma insists we end with Silent Night. Baby Ivy helped her dad with the more difficult songs.

The next morning we opened gifts in our matching Christmas pajamas. Annabelle got a building set and woodworking bench from her grandparents. She's THRILLED to be doing woodworking like daddy.

I barely took pictures Christmas because I was hit with the plague and/or stress sickness and lost my voice thanks to a horrible cough. I try to live a life of generosity and so I shared the plague with those nearest and dearest to me. It's been the gift that keeps on giving.

This was Sesame's fourth Christmas in her red smocked dress. I plan on her wearing it until she's at least 18.

I hope your Christmas was full of joy and free of germs.