Crystal Madrilejos

Just wanted to pop in and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season!

So far, our holiday has been a bit out of the ordinary. A wrench was thrown in our plans to celebrate with my side of the family when Quil broke out in chicken pox (on the heels of Ellis just getting over it) so instead of spending this past weekend with family, we spent most of the time being holed up. But I’m a firm believer in “everything happens for a reason” and the past few weeks have been go, go, go, between making gifts for everyone all the while trying to focus on myself and the path that I’m on. There’s a been a lot of slate cleaning that comes with the end of one year and the start of another. Lots of gears turning and check boxes being checked and lists to keep track of my lists. I think this little wrench in our plans was actually the Universe’s way of telling me to slow my roll and enjoy the scenery because it’s the best at this time of the year and it always seems to go by so fast. If you blink you’ll might miss something good. 

And even though things have been out of the ordinary, things have been calm and peaceful at our house and we’ve been able to focus on our little family for this small bit of time.

This holiday season flew by and now here I am. It’s Christmas morning and I’m enjoying this little slice of time that I have to myself to take in all the things we experienced this past year and how thankful I am for it all – the good and the bad.

As per usual, I got super ambitious with homemade gifts. I do this every single year. But this desire to make things by hand isn’t fueled by any sort of super-mom complex. It’s purely a love for making things and the fact that my kids, nieces, and nephews still like getting the things Andrew and I make. But with that said, even with all our planning for the gifts, we did cut it close. Another positive spin on Quil’s illness – it gave me a little more time to put finishing touches on the gifts (which I will post more about after they’ve been given to their recipients.) Another thing I love is that for our family, the time before Christmas is just a ramp up of making things. It’s the one time of the year where Andrew and I are excused to just design, create, build and craft unabashedly.

Here is a little wrap up of our holiday thus far. More photos to come after today, I’m sure.

This book on the windowsill is Quil’s contribution to holiday decorating.

A couple things to look forward to in the New Year: I finished up my Creative/Life Coaching sessions last week and have been working on a wrap up post, but haven’t been able to pull the trigger on it yet because my mind has been all over the place. Also big changes around this here blog!

See you in the New Year and wishing you all the best!

Tags: Family, Holiday, Kids