Jingle All the Way

Here are a couple photos from my instagram of our holidays, despite how tough this year has been I wanted to really focus on making each moment count with my hubby (hoping this is our last Christmas as two).

 One particularly rough day Dyl and I decided to go for a photo walk, the city had just gotten a beautiful snow fall and the sun was shining. It was so cold but I loved every minute of it. We captured some amazing photos (which I promptly printed and framed when we got home!) and I loved watching Dyl take some photos with my camera as he usually wont.
We captured some amazing photos, which I printed and framed a couple of them once we got home! It was so wonderful to just step away from all the stress of the holidays and spend time doing something I love with someone I love so much.

    

During the week we went to pick out our Christmas tree, Dyl made a great choice and we brought home a big (and I mean BIG) Douglass Fir, definitely my best experience with a Christmas tree as the needles were stronger and it didn't require as much watering or upkeep as our previous trees. I felt like a little elf as we decorated around the house with my family, spreading a bit of the holidays into every corner of our home. Dyl hung the outside lights (I mostly handed clips to him & admired the view.. haha) By the next day the tree was fully decorated and we had lovingly hung two very special ornaments - a big ornament that represents our precious son in heaven and another that has or wedding invitation in it, I made it this year and love the way it turned out because no matter how it turns we see little parts of our special day - like our names for example.

Our puppy Rosalee turned four this December and absolutely loves the snow, she is always the last one to come in and we often catching her laying in the snow basking in the sunshine - her fur coat must be so warm because I'll be bundled up inside still a little cold while I wait for her to come in, our little snow ball.

We did quite a bit of baking, which isn't uncommon for the holidays, which included making ginger bread houses and ginger bread cookies with my family. I have a love/hate relationship with ginger bread houses though, you put so much effort into them and don't want to even touch them until they are way too hard to eat - seems like a waste, I'll have to come up with something for next time.

 Dyl's family was in charge of putting together a couples Christmas party at our church. It was so much fun to get all dressed up and spend some time with my in-laws. We saw so many people we knew from church, when we used to go more frequently (and especially as Dyl went for most of his life) and met some lovely people too. When we first sat down the table had to put together a little "stocking" for a local homeless shelter, we all giggled but it was really nice to know that someone who doesn't have all the blessings we sometimes take for granted, will have a little joy this year - I definitely sent some quite love with that "stocking". Dyl's family put on a little readers theatre, which Dyl was a part of, they all did so good and really reminded me what Christmas is really about. There was some singing, which I mumbled quietly while making awkward faces - I don't really sing nor do I think I am good at singing, and there was a delicious Christmas dinner accompanied with a bunch of goodies. We both really enjoyed the party and it was nice to spend some time with Dyl's family.

Somewhere between everything, we got our Christmas shopping done and I even made a tutu for our littlest niece. We watched a handful of Christmas movies and wrapped presents together, Dyl made me laugh so much! There was a lot of hot chocolate sipping, glasses filled with egg nog, bustling through busy stores and throwing snow at eachother, and shoveling snow haha - it was a good, albeit busy, December and I really didn't expect to soak in the month as much as I did.

I didn't take many/if any(?!) photos from our Christmas day with our families. We had an early Christmas eve, spent relaxing and snacking on deviled eggs and delicious soft cheese (among other things aha YUM) and opening presents with my family. I used to kind of resent how busy the holidays were for us, splitting the day with both of our families and wondered how I could possibly pull it off with our someday kids but this year I really fell in love with the way we manage. We are up and out of the house early, loading presents into the car for the drive to Dyl's sister's house. We open presents in the morning and spend time watching our nieces play and enjoy time with Dyl's family. They have an early dinner, more in the afternoon so we are able to play a game (while laughing A LOT) with Dyl's family before getting back into the car and driving home to have a late Christmas dinner with my family which is spent doing very similar to the morning as we watch our nephew play and spend time around my family. Like I said before, this year I really embraced how we end up managing Christmas between our families - I know it isn't for everyone and that there are so many different ways to spend the holidays between families but I really embraced it this year and  I can definitely picture doing this with our own children. The busy, rush of a day surrounded by all of our family (minus two nephew's who were with their dad) is exactly what I think I want out of Christmas.

We miss our babies and hope that next year we are holding (or about to have) our long awaited baby.
But, we are happy.