Bowman West

My Tree is Still Up

It's almost the second week in January and my Christmas decorations are still up. We were gone the entire week of Christmas so I just need some extra time to enjoy them. If it were appropriate to leave our lights on the house (and light them) all year I would. I love them. I also love our tree. It's old and very Charlie Brown but each ornament has a special meaning and I hate packing them away. I want to leave our friends' and family's photo cards strung across the mantel all year. I just need another week or so to adjust to post-holiday life. Instead we start classes next week--what?? We usually don't start until mid-January. I just feel rushed. What I am happy about is Charlie's Tuesday/Thursday school starting next week. I LOVE my boy like crazy and he's been really precious and fun these past few weeks. I just need a few hours to myself--soon! No, I don't count his sleeptime as "by myself" because that's when I do the dishes, take a shower, etc. I'm talking about unadulterated sitting-at-Starbucks time or walking-through-Target-alone time. Anyone else feel like this? I truly believe that this alone time out of the house makes me a better mom.

So, I guess I should post about the holidays. We had a really busy but great trip to see our families. We spent Sat. through xmas lunch with Andy's family and x-mas night through Friday morning with my family. I love being with Andy's folks for Christmas Eve because their church has a great Christmas Eve service and the whole family gets together afterwards. This year we tried out the 4:00 Children's service to get things done a little earlier. There were only about thirty people and we were at first really apprehensive. It was definitely not your typical service. It was more of a birthday party for Jesus. It ended up being really sweet and the kids loved it. They talked about the nativity story and we said a sweet blessing over them. I started to cry watching Charlie sit on the pew holding his "order of worship" like a big boy. I'm so thankful for Andy's home church and the church family that we have there. It amazes me everytime we visit how much they love us and Charlie. I love anyone who loves my boy! Our visit to La Grange was great as well. Grammy & Grandaddy gave him a toddler table and chairs so now he acts like the idea that he sit in his high chair is ridiculous. He also loves the remote control car that they gave him. It's a chucky '57 Chevy that goes forward & back with the push of two buttons. It's just his speed. I love it too. My favorite game is to wait until Charlie's sitting on the floor then I drive that car around and run it into him. He thinks it's pretty funny.

My precious husband got me the new camera I wanted for xmas. It's an Olympus 790SW (in orange) and it's shockproof, waterproof & freezeproof. I'm set for the next time I go cliff diving in the arctic! It also takes decent videos so we now have our first videos of Charlie.

Andy got an Alton Brown salt cellar from Santa (his mommy). Andy LOVES Alton Brown.