I think one of my favorite phrases is “better late than never”.  It seems to be my life’s motto lately.  This has been a fabulous Christmas season this year despite crazy jobs and crazy sicknesses and all the other bits of life that seem to “take over” your life.   I’ve really enjoyed this Christmas season even though some of my best laid plans did not come to fruition.  (Sometimes you just have to let go of things that aren’t really necessary and enjoy simplicity.)  I told Martha Stewart, “no thanks”, this year and we put our tree up a little late and didn’t put out all the normal fru-fru that I traditionally stress over.   We got the lights up on most of our house (skipped the garage) because the big snow storm hit later that night. I skipped handmade Christmas cards and opted for some digitally designed (sorta handmade, right?) cards, half of which went out late, but they actually made it OUT this year WITH a Reader’s Digest condensed version of our normal Christmas letter.  YAY!

Brent and I have been focusing on spending time together as a family… me, him, and our Sweet Sadie.   We’ve attended some fun Christmas parties with friends, family, and coworkers and have had some awesome date nights with Christmas concerts and symphonies.  But most importantly we have spent countless hours together this past month playing games, watching movies, talking, laughing, teasing, and just enjoying the company of one another.   We spent Christmas day doing our own thing for part of the day.

Our Christmas morning tradition is to sleep in until one or both of us decides it’s time to get up and get going for the day.. lol… and then we start up the oven and prepare Jimmy Dean’s Sausage Cheese Balls for breakfast with some orange juice or other beverage.   Then we head to the living room with Sadie and pile on the couch. We take turns each year reading the Christmas Story from the Bible in Luke 2 and then one of us offers a prayer to thank our Heavenly Father for the gift of his Son and our many blessings.   We usually end up letting Sadie open her presents, which generally consist of a variety of treats in her stocking and a stuffed animal or two for her to shred, first.  This mostly keeps her entertained while we open our stockings and presents.  We take turns opening presents and sometimes it takes half the morning. Then we find something yummy for lunch and hang out together and play with our new “toys”.   This year we spent a good part of the afternoon making desserts to take to his brother’s house for the Grotegut family Christmas dinner. 🙂

I love my sweetheart.  I am glad to have been able to spend Christmas with him again this year.  It’s our 11th Christmas together.   I also am grateful for all my friends and family members that I have also been blessed with.

Merry {Late} Christmas & Inky Christmas Smiles!

Erin

PS.  Don’t forget about the blog candy contest!