2013...its a wrap

so....here i am wanting to post something lovely about our christmas festivities and saying "good-bye" to 2013

but all i have are a handful of random shots that really don't feel all that magical

and i'm wanting to kick myself for taking so few pictures of my kids

but that leaves me kicking myself for already breaking my new year's resolution to give myself some grace for all the things i'm not doing

which leads me to kicking myself for what I AM doing....

it's a vicious cycle

so instead of all that, i'm just poppin' in with not a lot to say and a few pictures to prove that we actually celebrated the holidays in 2013 and had some fun while we were at it.

we started the month with our annual north pole party

i decided to scale it back a bit this year and just invite the neighbor kids

the littles drank milk and ate cookies until the christmas police had to put an end to their sugar intake...

we made our yearly gigantic mess while mixing up reindeer food and j read the "night before Christmas"...flashlight style

...then finished off the night with kazoo lips and santa beards

now, if that doesn't put the merry in your Christmas, i just don't know what will

we had our fill of coloring and a few other Christmas crafts

it started out lovely

with lights and christmas music in the background

hot cocoa on the stove and everyone feeling festive

 Tulip's first round of "jingle bells" was sweet

the second round, even sweeter

the third time around the block, i was still smilin'

...and then we reached round 56...

at which point the Christmas police made another appearance, asking miss T if there were any other holiday tunes she knew

you guessed it - nope...just an entire month of that one song

geesh - i should have recorded it.  i know some day i'll want to hear her little voice belting out about a one horse open sleigh, but if i'm really honest with myself, i'm absolutely fine with the fact that christmas music is 11 long months away

you know who got to help out at a co-workers holiday get together by playing the part of old saint nick....

it was too funny not to snap a picture

santa....i know him!

the remainder of the month was spent with grandpas and grandmas and aunts and uncles and little cousins and little sleep

Grandma T must have been a good girl because she got a visit from twinkle's friend, henry, the day before Christmas!

my children opened a gaggle of presents, ate mountains of cookies and stayed up waaaaay too late

at the end of it all, j and i are thinking that we need a vacation from christmas vacation :)

i truly wish i had the energy and the time to sit and reflect on all the goodness of 2013

i'd love to post all my best pictures from the year and ponder all the memories....

but the reality is that i've still got 4 stacks of tests that i need to correct by thursday morning for my 8th graders.

so.....

with that in mind i'll wrap it up by saying this:

2013 was a blessed year

for many reasons

but far and away

this was the best thing that happened to us this year:

and if you know her even one little smidge then i don't need to tell you why

just when i thought life was really getting good

this one snuck in and brought the joy meter up another hundred notches

i'm a little rounder, a little sleepier and a little more forgetful thanks to her

but this year will go down as one of our best simply because it was the year we met sparkle
the year we became 5
the year we found out that three girls is infinitely awesome 

2013....it's a wrap