Soaking up Christmas Eve

As I sit here this Christmas Eve all I can think about is how grateful I am for this family I have and for the friends I love and cherish so much. My husband is currently in the kitchen singing along to his iTunes playlist, my children are crazily running around full bellied laughing with one another in the basement play area and I am sitting here absorbing it all while sipping on a glass of wine.

Today was one to go down in the books for me. As much as I love Christmas Day with its joyfulness and gifts and traditions, I almost think I love Christmas Eve more. The build up to the big day, the preparation of Santa's cookies and the sheer excitement in Harper's eyes as we talk about Santa and everything about him. We have been watching reindeercam.com and it has only built up Harper's excitement even more for Santa's arrival. She has been asking so many questions about where he will go and how he comes in the house and will he come upstairs while she is asleep (this one creeps me out a bit) and if our pups Cohen and Zoey will see him. It's so fun to get to experience the whole Santa phenomenon. It makes me want to have a bazillion babies so I can live in this feeling forever.

We are staying home in Kansas City and celebrating with just the four of us with the addition of the honorary "uncle slim" who my kids may love just as much or even more than us. I miss seeing my family dearly on Christmas but there is also something so wonderful about staying home and celebrating with your own little family and staying in your pajamas all day. I hope you all have the best Christmas ever filled with too much food, love and memories to last a lifetime. I can tell you this is already my favorite one yet.

 

Feeling lucky

Have you all heard the amount of money that could be won for tomorrow night's lottery?? 550 MILLION dollars!!!! I told J he needs to snag us a few tickets, you know, just incase the world decides to work in our favor and grant us with all that cash! My oh my what I could and would do with money to that degree. Endless possibilities!

Anywho, why I am really feeling lucky is because of the love I felt this past Saturday on my 29th birthday. My mom, stepdad, grandma and grandpa all drove up from Oklahoma to celebrate little ol' me. Saturday morning we woke up and got Harper all ready to take her to her very first school friends birthday party!! Luckily it was in the neighborhood (we were on a tight time frame with the anticipation of my grandparents arrival) and it was a Princess party and my mom was able to go an experience the fun with me!! Cinderella herself graced us with her presence. Honestly, that was the first best part of my birthday. Seeing my little girl all dressed up and heading to a friends party.  Watching all the little princes and princesses waving their wands to pop the magic bubbles and drinking pink lemonade out of personalized mason jars and seeing the joy in Harper's eyes taking it all in. The party was insanely adorable and really makes me realize how much I am going to have to up the anti on my crafting and birthday skills as my two kids grow up and expect more. I'm all for a birthday full of fun and surprises but I am not so big on myself creating the going all out themed parties. Damn you pinterest for upping the expectations!!We were only able to stay for 45 minutes before we went back to the house to meet my grandparents, but what a grand 45 minutes it was!

During the afternoon while the kids napped my mom, grandma and I went out and did a little shopping and had really fun girl time. Once the kids were up from napping, we loaded up in the cars along with a bag full of cheese, crackers, turkey, and wine and headed down to Westport to get in a limo for a holiday lights tour around the plaza and surrounding neighborhoods. This was the second best part of my birthday. Seeing Harper's reaction to the limo and how much fun she was having being silly playing with my mom made my heart almost burst. Paxton was a bit freaked out at first and really didn't want to get in the limo but after a few minutes (and a few crackers and cheese) he loosened up and had a blast being silly with his Grumpa and dada.

To end the evening we came back home and ordered some pizza, drank a bit more wine and ate my all time favorite cake ever, pineapple upside down cake. Mmmmmmmm its so delicious I may have to go eat a piece now =).

It's funny to think how my expectations and wants for my birthday have changed so drastically. A few years ago all I wanted to do was go out and party late at night with my friends.  Now, all I desire is to have a special day with my family and really soak in and embrace all that I have. I am so lucky to be loved the way I am and to have such wonderful family in my life. My third favorite part of my birthday was a gift from Josh. Yes, he gave me some really wonderful tangible things for my big day but what really made it wonderful was a list of 29 things that he loved about me. I have read and re-read that list multiple times and tear up every time. It was just very nice to hear why someone loves you and why they are happy to be spending their lives with you. It made me feel very special and that's all this birthday girl could have asked for. =)

*please excuse the blurry iPhone pictures and video but that's all we used this weekend and they make me so so happy!