Some Pictures From Christmas Morning and a Re-Cap

Thought I would share a couple pictures before the holidays are long behind us and it just wouldn't make sense to anymore. This Christmas was rough with Zoey getting sick on Christmas day, however time seemed to be on our side for Christmas morning at least...thank goodness. Here Zoey is ripping into her first present from Santa, she is so unlike me when it comes to what it is that she opens first. I always would chose the smallest and work my way up to a grand finale...she on the other hand does the exact opposite.





Here is the master at work assembling her easel...Santa thought it might be a good fit for Zoey since she loves playing school so much.  He was right about that, she's been painting, using her chalkboard and writing on her white dry-erase board ever since she's been up from being sick.



Loved this shot of the two of them after it was put together.



Santa was good to all of us this year...and I've come to the conclusion that despite Zoey being sick the entire break I'm thankful that we were on break when all heck broke loose otherwise I would have missed quite a bit of work and she, quite a bit of school had it been otherwise.  Zoey was sick starting on the 25th right up until about today...she's still fatigued and has a nasty cough but we're told that fighting off pneumonia can take awhile so we're thankful that she's made it this far along the path to recovery already.  We read lots and lots of books, watched lots and lots of movies, played lots and lots of games and took advantage of having the time to lounge around and snuggle. Something that we needed to do anyways and Zoey's health just made it so that we actually slowed down and did.  It is little blessings I am seeking. 

I read this post right around the time when I was feeling my lowest and it rang so very true that it seemed to shake me to my very core.  I can't even tell you the extent of my disappointment that I felt this year with everything.  I kept feeling rushed and realizing that I was missing the mark on so many things (the cut-out cookies were never made this year, I never got to the fudge, I only sent out half of the Christmas cards, shopping for others wasn't finished, my packages weren't as "pretty" as usual, I could go on) and then I read that blog post and it was like a damn broke and I could breathe again because it was so very true.  I was totally getting sucked into the trappings of this "holiday" and wasn't focusing on the reason itself.

 "Whenever Christmas begins to burden, it’s a sign that I’ve taken on something of the world and not of Christ."

And with Zoey getting so very sick, scary sick, it was almost as though God reached down and shook me to help me better see what the focus should be...where my heart should be...where it is that my family should be.  And now, we all go back to school tomorrow and things will go on as they did before but I am determined to say "no" more to others and "yes" more to my family.  I am determined to make things matter and have substance.  I am determined to push away guilt that is mis-placed and to live with a happy and true heart.