i REALLY struggle with holidays. i like tradition. i like consistency. i like family. i like to be home.
we live in tulsa. i LOVE tulsa. i love our church. i love our home. i love our neighborhood and our friends. i love the trees and the azaleas. i love the architecture. i love the merge of the quaint town/big city.
but i LOATHE the fact that we life SO FAR FROM OUR FAMILY. it's everything i don't want for you. you could give a flip about the river parks and mid century architecture. and when it all comes down to it (gulp) so could i.
so, this is why i REALLY struggle with holidays. i want us to be home. no suitcases, no car rides, no catch up on laundry days and hope we packed what we needed feelings. BUT, i want us to be surrounded by family.
you see the problem.
dad and i made the BIG STATEMENT last year that we would travel to guymon for your first christmas, but after that we WERE STAYING HOME and would love for anyone who wanted to to come to our house. the closer christmas got, the heavier my heart was. i SO wanted you to have a christmas with "my" family, too.
i do hope that we can have the "tradition" of christmas morning at our house. and i hope too, that we live closer to family soon.
soooo.... we decided to spend christmas day in texas this year. we transplanted our "christmas day" to the week before... but the weekend was booked... and there was just not a day that we could have our "christmas morning" - i was bummed and sad.
but after a good (and much needed, as always) pep talk from grandma - she put it all in perspective. i needed to quit being whiny and wanting everything just as i pictured. ;)
we had a PERFECT family christmas. instead of pajamas, we dressed you in your festive christmas card dress. dad come home from work early and we had breakfast for dinner. so much fun. then, he took you on a date to starbucks so santa and i could get the house in shape.
yall were gone FOREVER. every candle in the house was lit, and i was afraid they'd burn out before yall got home... ha. glad yall had fun!
you came home and we sat in the hallway and dad read us the christmas story and we played with your little nativity scene. i like our itty bitty hallway. :)
then we did the traditional, walk down the hall while dad videos. funny thing. you screamed NO NO NO NO NO and ran right past dad with the camera, right past all the gifts, the roaring fire, the pretty candles, the lit christmas tree... straight into the kitchen. i'm not sure why. but, it was really bizarre. and i was laughing SO hard on the inside. so, we had a christmas re-do. the second time was flawless ;)
really, it was a great christmas night. we watched you go through all of santa's gifts... and then we all opened gifts to/from eachother. i need to be better about documenting dad and i... somehow we never make it into pictures. promise we were there ;)
you are at such a fun age for gift giving... you get SO excited about everything. i could watch you all day long. thank you for being so precious and for making holidays so fun for us :)
we adore you. part of me can hardly wait to see what next christmas is like with you. but most of me sure doesn't want it to be here anytime soon ;)
it was a merry christmas, sarah caroline!
i love you,
mom :)
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