Rolling Eyes, Throwing Punches & Dancing-- Merry Christmas 2013

I stopped mailing Christmas cards last year.  It wasn't something I decided to do, it just sort of happened.  I'm actually not getting very many Christmas cards anymore either.  One of my theories about why some of us aren't sending out as many or any cards around the holidays is because we all loved showing off our babies.  Oh look, there's my cute little baby with Santa.  Awwww, here's my adorable toddler kissing my new baby by the Christmas tree.  Those were fun cards to send.  Now, I'm not so sure people want to see pictures of my surly preteens by the Christmas tree.  They are still really good looking kids, but it is challenging to catch the older ones smiling in between eye rolls.  

Oh wait, this shot is pretty good.  They are all sort of smiling.

But of course, a photo shoot usually ends up in some sort of mayhem.

 Wait for it...

Of course, the baby Wade throws the first punch.  (He is truly one tough kid, watch out Pre-K.)

Mayhem.  But it's my mayhem and I love them with every fiber of my being, even when they are rolling eyes and throwing punches.

For fun, I started doing those little dance videos.  The kids loved watching the videos over and over and over.  Then it just sort of happened again, I stopped doing them.

But we didn't stop dancing. Duh.
So, I thought for this year's Christmas card/video, I'd put together a mash up of some of my favorite dance clips from 2013 and put them to my favorite song from 1985.   As far as dance-y years go, this one wasn't the danciest.  Parts of this year looked like the sad little town in Footloose where dancing was outlawed (before Kevin Bacon liberated them).  Slowly, I am getting my groove back and I have high hopes for 2014 to be one of the danciest years yet.  

Check us out:


Annnnnnd Merry Christmas!  
Hope you are somewhere dancing your heart out because just like Midnight Star sings in the video, it's so easy and so right.  

In Defense of Imperfect Family Pictures

Even though everyone says they don't, they do it.  They try to look perfect in pictures. Right now you know all those everyones are gathering their families together and posing their kids in front of the Christmas tree for the perfect picture.  THE Christmas card picture that will show the world how cute, fantastic and beautiful and amazing their family is.   

And while I'm sure those families are indeed cute, fantastic, beautiful and amazing, I am also sure they are not perfect.  Not perfect is what my family does really well.  Even though I know this and embrace this, I still try for that perfect shot.

And I fail miserably.  But every year, our family picture tells a story.  A real story.  A story that is messy, loud, full of wrestling and bickering and laughing.  A story of a family that is cute, fantastic, beautiful, amazing and totally, completely not perfect.

It was bold to think that my husband and I could get in the picture and it would work out well.  Bold and wrong.

This shot is a bit over Instagrammed and filtered, but it tells the story of a distracted tween and fidgety toddler

This shot is as close to "perfect" as we might get.  It tells the story of mismatched PJ's and socks.  Wade having to be restrained by big brother Peyton.  Lucy working her smile and JT seconds away from doing a crazy dance. 

But here's the rest of the story from that night:

These pictures make me smile and make me love my kids more.  I'm so glad I got all these so far from perfect pictures.  Sure, I might like the shots better if they were all in matching PJ's, but someday down the road I might remember that I was waaaay too tired to coordinate that.  It's all a part of the our story.

I hope more people send out the real pictures of their families.  Not only will I feel better about my unruly brood, I will also feel like I'm getting to truly know their stories.

Here's a great article from Babble on how to take better (not perfect, but better) pictures, click here .

It's not just pictures that we do imperfectly.  Check out this short video on how we decorate for Christmas.

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This is so yesterday, but I was one of those nerds that thought recognizing 12/12/12 was fun. After school, I had the kids write down 12 things that make them happy.

It was a fun after school project that didn't take long. Barbies still make Lucy happy, which makes me happy.  Peyton included YouTube on his list which is funny.  JT wrote down Keith Baboo, our makeshift elf on the shelf, which I love.  Then it was my turn.  It was fun.  Rarely do I think about what I like.  Do you?  Try it.  List 12 things right now, do it, have fun.

Here's 12 things that make me happy:
1. My kiddos (I really kind of had to write that becuase they were sitting right next to me.)
2. Dancing
3. Twitter
4. Family (most of them anyway)
5. Avocados
6. Taking Pictures
7. Madonna
8. Friday Nights
9. Monday Mornings (weird but true, I love getting back to a routine)
10. Chipotle
11. Going to the Movies
12. Running