I remember a time when I felt like there was something wrong with us if we didn't have big plans for New Years. Failures at being fun, important, interesting...and I guess somewhere along the way of being a wife and a mother, I grew up. I now realize and truly know in my heart that none of that is what matters. What matters to me now is the 4 of us just being together. Having plans, not having plans, it doesn't really define us...what defines us is our love for each other and how much we truly just enjoy being together. That is what I want most. That is the family life I have always longed for. God has given it to me and it amazes me every day. I certainly do not deserve this family life He has given me but oh how I treasure it. From the holidays with special plans to the daily grind of laundry, dinner, school, piano lessons, etc...I treasure all of it because it is exactly as I always dreamed and hoped it would be. Not perfect, please do not get me wrong. We are human, so very human, and we make mistakes, so many mistakes, but we are together and we love each other and so we forgive and we move on and thank God that He has taught us how to love and how to forgive. You cannot truly love without knowing how to forgive. Coming from a divorced family, what I want most in the world to give my children is a home to come home to that contains the family they have always known and will always know until God chooses to take one of us to Glory with Him. That is my greatest ambition, to be successful at having a family. It is so important to me.
So in keeping with those goals and ambitions of keeping the heart of this family alive and well, our only plans for celebrating the end of 2010 and ringing in 2011 were to be together. So that's exactly what we did...we had no plans, we were just together, and it made me so happy. The kids were so happy. It reminded me of how much they need this time together. They don't require Disney World to be happy, although we all do love that place, what they need is time with their family. I once read a quote that read..."Children spell love, T-I-M-E" and I know it is the complete truth.
Chad got off at lunch and we left for Oxford. We had lunch at a great Mexican place. We returned a couple of gifts. We considered a movie but we were going to have to wait an hour and we are all truly sick of malls and shopping so we decided to come home and hit the Redbox at WalMart. We did a little grocery shopping. We rented movies. We came home. We made brownies, put a few things together for dinner, and finished with brownie sundaes. It was divine, sinful, and so fun. And then...let the games begin...
We played Monopoly...
Cooper and his daddy put together puzzles...
Then he joined the Monopoly game...
We put on our PJ's and had so much fun...
Claudia got out her camera and captured the moments...perhaps not my best photogenic moments, but certainly some of my best memories!
We broke out the Wii...and bowled...Chad let Spencer hang out in his lap...we watched the kids play tennis...
Her game face...
His game face...
The boys didn't make it. They sacked out on us before midnight. I hung in there with Claudia and we rang it in together. It was exactly the way I wanted to end one year and begin the next. Together. That is my resolution for 2011...to be together. That is what I want, for us all to be together as much as we can.
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