Dearest Castillo Children,
It's that special time of year again! Christmas! All the fun of the months before seem to all come together in this joyous final month of the year! There's candy, presents, lights, music, decorations and of course, Santa. But my favorite part of the year is the fact that we can hear songs about Christ, speak openly about being Christians and knowing the real reason for the season. I love that people are a little more friendly and kind. That everyone, even those who don't celebrate Christmas, is a little happier. I LOVE this time of year. I hate, however, that we got sick the first week of December. Boo! Nora and Annalise got a stomach bug thing and I got a pretty bad cold. Todd got a little cough, but that was about it. Weird. We were going to go to Zoo Lights this year at the Reid Park Zoo, since we're members there, but we were too sick to go. That's okay. It didn't damper my little Christmas Spirit Machines, Nora and Annalise. Nora saw that her friends' houses were decorated for Christmas so she bugged me for a full week to decorate our house. Honestly, with how hard my pregnancy has been, without these two little cuties I probably would have been happy with a little tree and a bow on the door. But we did the FULL decorating - lights outside, lights inside, tree, garland, bows, the whole 9 yards. Here are some pictures of the girls helping.
Annalise in her new favorite clothing item - her red skirt. It use to be her cousin Violet's but now it's the item she begs to wear everyday. I'm a mean Mom and tell her no.
This little Christmas bear because Annalise's friend and she named him Barry.
Nora found our Christmas books
And she found our little nativity set
Annalise dancing with Barry while we tried to decorate around her
Nora made a circle around her of all the Christmas decorations stuff animals
The following week we went to pick out our Christmas tree
Nora really wanted this tree but it was dry and we had to convince her to fall in love with another one
This is the tree we finally settled on. It was full, soft and smelled great. Nora wasn't thrilled (see picture) BUT we told her she got to name the tree. That made her happy again and she named the tree Star, since apparently it was a girl tree.
Pulling out all the lights and ornaments to decorate Star
Nora was really excited to do the Star on top of Star :)
Daddy had technical difficulties with some of the lights for the tree. So while he was a good daddy and fixed it, we drank eggnog, ate cookies and listened to carols.
Enjoying her eggnog - because eggnog is awesome
And we had red velvet cake cookies - which were surprisingly good
Each girl got to hang up their own special ornament from the year they were born
Annalise got a turn putting on the star
And so did Nora - both girls got to help
YAY for decorations! Without Nora I also wouldn't have sent out my Christmas cards this year. I didn't send out all of them - but MOST of them I did. Honestly, I'm glad Nora insisted on helping me stuff envelops and put on stamps or else I wouldn't have done it. I just enjoy doing Christmas stuff with a 4 and almost 3 year old. EVERYTHING is so exciting and fun. I thought last year at Christmas was awesome but it only seems to get better every year.
With All My Love,
Your Mother
I think the Lord sends us our kids to help us do all the things we should and want to do but wouldn't find the energy for otherwise. Thank you for all the photos and for your part of the calendar. We love it. Here is praying that you get well and that life goes smoothly. Of course it won't because apparently we need the challenges, but we can still pray for it.
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