Pieces of a Christmas card

It seems my blog is starting to look like a never ending Christmas card, a little too happy,so here are the real things going on with us.

December was a long month. Richard had been finishing up his anatomy class, which meant long hours at school in the lab. Several days went by with Richard leaving before the kids woke up or close to it and then returning home after bedtime. Naomi has been waking up in the night crying for Richy. Some nights I bring her into bed with us just so she can see he is still here on some level. While Richy lay in bed asleep Naomi kisses his face all over while saying "Hi daddy". In Richard's sleepy voice he says to me "Don't you dare take her out". This scene is played out several times through out the night. It became clear to me how much I missed him when I found myself being overly excited to go to church. At church I get to sit by him in class free of our children for one whole hour! We were able to escape for one real date to the St. Louis symphony

Luckily December was broken up by a flow of visitors. My best friend Bianca came for a couple days. Bianca and I spent a considerable amount time sitting in my car in the Whole Foods parking lot eating a variety of brownies. We were living the good life.

The elementary school shooting in Connecticut left me in a state I would not have expected given that my favorite show is the local news which is full of stories about shootings. Having an elementary school age child made this terrible story more real to me. As I watched the news I cried for the families. I cannot image what their pain must feel like. All I could do was watch the news and the clock, counting down the minutes until I could pick Levi up safely from school. I know intellectually that this is statically rare, but still the fear of not always being able to protect him looms over me. I am used to worrying that he did not eat a big enough breakfast to sustain him until lunch at school, I am used to worrying about his social interacting, like are kids nice to him, but this brought a whole new realm of worries associated with Levi going to school. Upon seeing Levi I gingerly selected my words and actions in hopes of not alerting him to the fact that something horrible had happened to children while at school. I may not be able to protect myself from that fear but I will do my best to protect him.
My sister Emily and my Niece Hope have been visiting us for Christmas. I love having them here. My kids adore Emily and I have no complaints about her doing my laundry and getting up in the morning with my kids. I consider myself a fairly productive person, that is until Emily is around. She takes over and gets things down, she takes care of me.


I have come to learn that even with all of the awful things going on in the world and the difficulties of our personal lives, there are still reasons to get together, make cheesy smiles, and take pictures of the happy moment as a reflection of our family life. I am too lazy to actually put together a Christmas card, but if I were not, than these would be the pictures I would send out.
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It was hard to get Levi to look at the camera.

It was even harder to get Naomi to pose. Naomi has a little piece of silk appropriately called her "silky". She brings it every where, so it was only right that it make it's way into our family pictures.

The silky took a back seat to the sucker!