Holidays

I absolutely LOVE this time of the year from Thanksgiving to Christmas. The anticipation, the celebrations, the time spent with family. I'm all warm and fuzzy. I feel for those who, either recently or long ago, experienced a trauma that won't allow them to feel anything but dread and stress this time of year and hope that the TRUE joy in this season finds them in the midst of any pain.
Thanksgiving, as usual, was spent in Michigan with the fams. Our main meal was with the Louwerse side this year, and it was a wonderful, relaxing day of family, food, and fun. As an added bonus Brian, Keri, and Lily (James's brother and his wife and daughter who live in the Cayman Islands) were in town. The only pieces missing in this perfect day were Keith and Jen, Bella and Keagan (we miss you guys! The 2 of us need to stop getting preggo, Jen, so we actually see each other :-) And seeing each other on Skype doesn't totally count). We also spent time with my side of the family (Mom, Dad, Jon, and Melissa) on Friday which was great. Our only regret in the weekend was missing several friends and the great-grandparents. We are looking forward to Christmas and an extended time in the motherland with everyone.
Our Thanksgiving travels were made a whole lot easier this year with the addition of Minnie the van to our family. I still can't get over all the space! I have still been loving the new van and feel I have managed to hang on to shreds of my coolness (what little I started with) while transitioning into a mini van mom.
Our holidays have been and will be more enjoyable with James's CFP test out of the way as well. It was a loooooong year this past year that included classes 1 - 2 times a week, the week-long review class, and then countless nights of studying. I got the tiniest glimpse into the life of a single parent during that time, and James and I are both breathing sighs of relief now that he has more free time. The weekend of the actual test (Nov. 21 and 22) were extremely stressful. It really is a crazy hard test and James was, unfortunately, overwhelmed and not feeling terribly confident going into it. After finishing the Friday portion he felt ok, but all he could say on Saturday was, "That was hard." :-) But, like I said, we're happy it's over and only have to wait
5-7 more weeks for the results. Tick tock....
Our latest adventure took place last night when we tried giving Jeran a haircut here at home. It came down to trading $20 for an hour of our time (and a portion of our hearing which seems to have been permanently dampened by the screams). Unfortunately, about 2 minutes into the project our clippers showed themselves to be less than adequate for the task, but James pushed on and the end result is, in his own words, "Not bad but not good". True, there are a few stray patches here and there which sprout out of his scalp but for the most part it's a vast improvement on the permanent bedhead we were subjecting JJ to before. I don't really know what his deal is with haircuts but they turn him into an incoherent banshee. It's a little like having his fingernails cut which I haven't had to do in a year since he started taking it upon himself to bite and pick them off himself. Ew. I shudder to think what his self-made remedy for haircuts could be.
Baby Bean is doing just fine. I've started to feel movement (mostly in the evenings) and next week Tuesday we have our ultrasound. I'm feeling more and more convinced that I don't want to find out this time. James and I are still working out a compromise since he's pretty sure he DOES want to know. Time will tell what the final decisions are...
For now, greetings of Christmas joy and peace to you as you go through this holiday season. I am challenged this year not to lose sight of the true Reason for our joy amidst all the busyness this time can hold and all the "musts" we sometimes feel in this month.