Merry Christmas

What a year 2014 has been for me, my family, and my business!  It started out with a bang with the birth of Ellis in January and it did not slow down.  This past year was my busiest and best year for my business ever, thanks to all of you!  But combine a busy three year old, a new baby, a busy work schedule, along with my husband's crazy travel schedule for work and it became a year of craziness.  Many days it felt like we were doing everything we could just to barely stay above water.  We were doing the bare minimum: keeping the kids fed, bathed, and the house somewhat put together.  Trevor and I felt like a tag team; we were always passing - he would come home from work, I would ramble the kids' feeding schedules, and I would leave for work and vice versa.But we knew it was a short season of our lives, that we had a time of rest coming and it was going to start with our November vacation in Florida.  I have never so desperately needed a vacation, and I know Trevor felt the same way.  Our kids probably were thinking the same thing!  We needed to be resting, just the four of us, together.  We needed a time to refuel with sleep, laughter, fun family activities and at least a simple conversation with my husband.  Throw in the warm Florida sun and it was perfect.Our family vacation was just the reset I needed, and since then my priorities have shifted during this winter season.  Work is always slow in the winter, which honestly, I am thankful for right now.  My kids are always my number one priority, but this winter they are number two and three on the list as well.  We have spent the month of December doing Christmas crafts and activities, not to just check them off our to do list, but doing them for enjoyment and fun.  I have LOVED being a mom this month more than ever simply because I have taken the time to focus on it as my sole priority.  Sometimes I begin to spread myself out a little too thin and it wears on me.  I can do just about everything at once if I choose to, but I cannot do everything well.The Christmas messiness that would usually get me stressed out hasn't bothered me this year because I have been refocused on the few things that matter most: I am celebrating the birth of my Savior, I am also able to teach Jasper so much more about the Christmas story this year, and I am thankful to be able to celebrate Christmas with so much of my family this year.  Instead of thinking of what has been lost, what is not the same as Christmases in the past, how much I have to cook and get done, or how much family Christmases exhaust my children, I am spending time celebrating...dancing with my kids on my flour covered kitchen floor while making Christmas cookies, sweeping up yet another broken ornament with laughter because Ellis has an amazingly crazy personality, finding the strand of Christmas lights that has gone out and fixing them for the third time because Jasper is so happy to see the lights each and every day, and taking the time to sit on the couch and watch every Christmas cartoon ever made!  I have enjoyed these activities this year for the first time in a long while, and I didn't even have them on my to do list.  I simply made the choice to focus on the good parts of Christmas instead of all the bad that can come with it, and I have been a happier person because of it.I hope you get to take time to enjoy your Christmas!  I truly hope that even if Christmas is hard this year for you because of loss, loneliness, or any life struggle that you are able to focus on the good, and know that no one's Christmas is perfect even though sometimes it feels that way.  And please, please give yourself the gift of taking a few things off your to do list that don't really need to get done, and take the time to celebrate!  Merry Christmas and I will see you in the New Year!