So how was everyone's Thanksgiving? We were going to enjoy a lovely dinner with some friends but our plans were quickly changed by an evil stomach virus that haunted our poor daughter for 3 days. Thankfully my husband had planned a small family dinner for us anyway so we stayed home. It still was a nice Thanksgiving, after all I had some of the people around me I am thankful for the most! We have been so very blessed in so many ways.
Despite the huge amount of snow this time of the year is one of my favorite. Honestly, the holidays are the only thing that excites me about the winters here!! Speaking of holidays, one of my favorite holidays is coming up soon! Christmas!!! Not x-mas, Christmas! I love to decorate the house
although I seriously need to step up my game if only someone would let me buy all the decoration I want! and the smell of my scented candles and warmers, which I get
here. And let's not forget about the Christmas songs on the radio! I usually just listen to
khrt so it is all Christian music but those are the Christmas songs I love the most. There are only very few commercial ones I like that don't annoy me, lol. Baking cookies is very high on my hitlist too! Well, and eating them of course. With me being from Germany we celebrate St. Nikolaus Day on the 6th of December. The kids find a small gift in their boots in the morning, I read them the story about St. Nikolaus and we donate something. This year we'll be picking a gift for a child from the angel tree. Every year the BX has Christmas trees set up that have the information of children (age, gender, gift wishes) on a piece of paper. You can pick a child, shop for them and drop off the gift at a drop off station. They then will be wrapped and delivered to the children. Another thing we want to do is Operation Christmas Child, you can find the information
HERE.
For us it is important that our kids understand we don't glorify St. Nikolaus but rather recognize how God has used him and how he was an example of living a Godly life. I'm sorry to burst your bubble but there's no Santa on Christmas at our house. We keep Christ in Christmas. Which is also why our kids don't get huge gifts or a multitude of gifts. We celebrate Jesus' birthday. They get 2 small gifts, one for Christmas Eve, which is when we do a Christmas dinner (Germans celebrate on the 24th but also have the 25th and 26th off! Woohoo for off days!). The other one is for Christmas Day. No reason to feel bad for our kids though, the grandparents, aunts and uncle take care of some other gifts. Mostly clothes but Nia is such a girl so she LOVES clothes!
This year the kids might be in for a surprise though. Nia has been obsessed with dogs since before she could even talk. So Joseph and I have been talking about possibly getting them a dog for a year now. We wanted to wait until we knew whether or not we'd get orders. You don't wanna put a new dog through that much stress, especially if you're moving overseas. But you all know we didn't get orders! We've been doing research on dog breeds but I'm all for adopting a dog from a shelter so despite my love for English bulldogs (I know they drool, fart and snore
but so does my husband) this will be our first stop if we actually go through with it this year. Last year Nia was about to turn 2 and I had just had Isaiah so it wasn't the right time. I was dealing with a newborn and potty training a stubborn toddler. This year I've been looking into applying for a service dog for Isaiah but due to his age he doesn't qualify as most organizations have an age requirement of 8 years. It's sad because children with special needs can benefit from the companionship of a dog at a much younger age. Obviously, he wouldn't need it for physical assistance but Isaiah needs lots of assurance and affection, has a hard time with crowds and unexpected things. A service dog could help with that. There are also SD that can sense an oncoming seizure, seizures are not harmless, they do damage to the brain. Just think about how a toddler who suffers from seizures could benefit from a SD that has this ability! Anyway. I can't change the requirements although I have written to some of the organizations. Since Isaiah won't qualify, hopefully we will be able to find a dog with a gentle spirit. That is if Joseph decides to go through with it this year. He always wants to make sure he's making the right decision, especially when it involves the life of another creature. I mean getting a dog is not like buying a dress, if you don't like it you simply return it. We've seen many people do that with their pets and it is sad. We wouldn't want to do that to a dog and to our kids! So keep checking back to see where this journey is going!
Hopefully today I will get most of my decorations up! It's been a weird kinda day today, so we'll see where this is going today... I have a couple of projects I need to get to as well, Christmas gifts that need to be made, decorations that need to be made, Christmas pictures of the kids to take since someone who will remain nameless,
Joseph, yet again couldn't make up their mind this year on whether or not to have professional family pictures....then those pictures need to be turned into Christmas cards, which then will need to be send to all the different friends and family members we have! I'm getting stressed as I'm typing, lol. I didn't realize Saturday would already be the first of December! Usually I get the Christmas cards ordered way before!!! Plus, I wanted to make an advent calendar for the kids but I'm not sure I'll be able to get it all done. If anyone has a helping hand, or two, or three, they want to lend me, holla at me!!
Alright, it's time to get ready and pick up Nia! I will talk to you all later! As always, thanks for following!
Love,
