Advent Season

Reagan's looking for a little reassurance.

She's prefers Santa from a distance.

Although we were going for a family moment here, I think the sheer weight of the children was overwhelming Santa's lap. He asked me several times in disbelief to confirm their ages. Maybe we'll just have to go for the tree shot for a Christmas card.
Well, I won't waste anyone's time with lame explanations for my severe lapse in logging. That's life! Speaking of life, ours has been busy. We spent the majority of November trying to get everyone well at the same time. We were successful (barely), just in time for our trip to St. Louis to see my family. I drove with the kids and stayed for ten days. Matthew flew in the day before Thanksgiving and was able to stay until Saturday. We had some great time with family and friends. I was able to see my good friend Robyn and her beautiful little boy, Drew. We went to dinner with our friend Dan and met his girlfriend. I'm quite sure that Dan and I bored Matthew and Tina to death with memories and funny (according to us) stories of our memories from high school. At least he didn't bring the "Whiz Bang Book". For those of you who remeber that, you know it would have dragged the night out that much longer. I wonder if it's even still in existence.

We spent so much quality time with my mom, my Grandma, Kiki and Uncle Clay, Uncle Scott & Aunt April, and Shelby. It was really a great reunion for the McClain family!

Now we are ready to swing into the Christmas Season. I am trying to take some quality time every day in order to start new traditions, carry on some traditions from the past few years and instill in my children what was so sacred to me in my Christmas memories. I know it seems cliche, but this truly is a time of wonder for Ian, and I can tell it will be the best Christmas we have had thus far.

May everyone have a truly wonderful Advent season and take time to truly reflect on what we are celebrating.