The Early Morning Hours

My most favorite time of the entire day is the very early morning. I'm a morning person...always have been, always will be. In recent years, we've taken on the role of caring for little ones who are EXTREME morning people...making it easy for me to rush through the this time of day in a frenzy, depending on the day, and really unable to soak in this very quiet, very perfect time of day.

When I wake up, I feel refreshed (unless my insomnia has gotten the best of me), the worries of the previous day have been minimized and I feel enthusiastic about taking on the day. On this particular morning, our little bambinos are waking up with their grandparents. Dylan is going to take a couple hours to sleep in because he saw Rogue One last night and didn't come home until 1am. (In my completely biased opinion, a person must be almost clinically insane to purposely stay awake that late to see a movie.) So here I am, next to the Christmas tree lights with a lame Christmas movie on TV and a cup of something hot doing what I love best. I have two hours of spa treatments at one of the city's most elite spas ahead of me. (A sponsored event...obviously.) So, it's pretty safe to say that this might be the most relaxed I've felt inside the walls of this house since some time in early 2013. And it's such a relief because I'm one of those people who believes that a full moon...especially a super moon...brings out the crazies. I am most definitely one of those crazy people. The super moon is cool, but I'm glad that it's waning, I'm feeling less crazy and that we have three months in a row of super moons behind us.

I'll get to the point here soon, but I dug up a few random photos from this week that deserve to be posted.

Just trying to finish a snack before checking in at the Kids Club

Celebrating my birthday with family, just a couple months late. Because that's how we do. 

Decorating gingerbread men at Gavin's school Christmas party

Playing with his new toy from Nonna and Papa. Every boy opened one gift early from under the Christmas tree when we were all there on Wednesday night for my birthday/family Thanksgiving.

Even though I'm enjoying a rare kid-free morning at home, I'd like to turn the focus onto Graham. I'm completely obsessed with him because he's adorable and hilarious and fills the world with joy. But also, we celebrated his birthday last night with our local family. We've really dialed down birthday celebrations, and I'm liking it. I hope to convince my kids that the family-only, low-key party is the way to go, but I imagine it will be a hard sell as they get older. Anyway, it was a few decorations from Hobby Lobby, a store-bought cake (plus a free smash cake for the first birthday!), chili in the Crock-Pot and corn dogs for the kids. It was fun and wild and chaotic, exactly as a night with five little boy cousins should be. We had a blast celebrating Graham, and he enjoyed being loved on by the family.

I tried to mimic the same photo that I took of Gavin when he turned 1. I can't find that picture...because it's stuck on a hard drive with water damage that can only be repaired to the tune of $1000. I'm not that motivated to recover it.

I bought him this Blabla doll, and it wasn't an immediate hit. Maybe it'll just take time to grow on him :)

An army of helpers for gift-opening

This boy loves banging things, and he got instruments galore. It's perfect!

A little overwhelmed by it all.

Head of the kids' table

He was a little tired by cake time, so he didn't exactly dig into his cake. Probably for the better.

Oh, it's all too much!

Big brother swiped a taste of the cake.

He enlisted a cousin to help him out.

Why not dive right in?

Kristin took every picture for me, and this little gift at the end of the night surely made me smile.

Uncle Max loves roughing this guy up.

And then later, I found this as my home screen. I need to keep a closer eye on my phone!

Originally, we were going to bring the boys to my parents' house this morning before an all-day event, but when they offered to take them last night, I didn't hesitate to pack a bag and load the boys into the car. I can't even count how many nights these boys have spent with my parents, and I'm eternally grateful for that. This quiet morning by myself might prove to be the best part of this whole day. This Christmas season has been the first time I've felt kind of overwhelmed and rushed by it all and just like I won't be able to do all the things I want to do. With a trip to New Orleans, another company party and a first birthday, we didn't have much time to do all the other normal things. I used to think that people were grinchy for thinking Christmas was stressful...but now I kind of understand. I love everything about it, but next year I'll have a plan in place to slow things down and seep as much enjoyment from the season as possible. Anyway, we have a week yet to go, and I imagine it will be smiles all the way, so you really can't ask for much more than that!