the way i view holidays. clickinmoms project

i love the holidays! i can hardly believe they are all over it! it’s the second of the month & time for the monthly blog circle of “the way i view.” this month we are talking about how we view holidays. make sure at the end of this post to link up to the next photographer in the circle so you can make the full loop!

the way i view the holidays is being together and teaching the real story behind christmas. garrett’s school does a great job of that, too. we tried to emphasize this alot. we love traditions, too. we make a yearly christmas plate, look at lights, make cookies with nini & pa, etc…we had so much fun.

i am always so fearful of him becoming greedy around christmas because kids get so excited about presents so we did tons of random acts of kindness together throughout december. one day in particular we sat down & created a list of 27 things to do in honor of the victims in newtown. (thank you ann curry for the inspiration & to the many people out there who do stuff like this & help spread ideas). i let garrett come up with the ideas first, then i filled in by giving my ideas…at the end we still had about 5 things left where we needed help! i turned to an old post i had seen on drew bittel’s momtog blog…loved it when i read it back in 2011 & still do. thanks for the inspiration, drew! i was amazed by how nice people are. garrett & i tried to stay incognito but we got caught a few times & i was so thrilled with how many people (even in the hustle & bustle of christmas crowds) will stop, get down on a 4 year olds level & truly express appreciation. it was so fulfilling in the end because of the impact it had on garrett. he’s still talking about how it was fun to give to others. of course he still looooves presents, too, but atleast he’s learning to give! we spent hours devising a plan, gathering materials, making things & then spent from about noon to 9pm carrying out our plans…it was a full day but we were both so full of adrenaline we were unstoppable! garrett made his mark all over the city. he passed out about starbucks gift cards to cars with notes, to store workers, to firefighters, to hospitals, etc. he picked out books to donate to the children’s hospital, brought treats to the dog shelter, spread his love all over cars, bathrooms, shopping carts with inspirational quotes with his artwork on them. we bought the coffee of the guy in line behind us at starbucks…he tracked us down at a light & thanked us so genuinely, you would’ve thought we gave him a million dollars. people are so nice. we helped some homeless peops, made cards & mailed them to friends who needed a pick me up. garrett wanted to buy lottery tickets for people. he randomly left them places with little notes or handed them out to people we saw along the way. he chose to buy 4 bunches of flowers….one for nini, one for the checker at the grocery store, one for the checker at target & one for a “sick kid” at the hospital. garrett called some of the special people in our life to “send a hug.” we participated in samaritan’s purse & are still in the process of making snowflakes for sandy hook. i’m not real crafty b ut we’ll make it happen some way! then of course the small things like asking someone how they’re doing, giving a compliment, holding doors…i was amazed at all the ideas he came up with himself & very proud of him.

taking some time off of work was fun & i appreciated being able to enjoy the traditions we do every year without all the extra distractions. john had some time off of work, too. we didn’t do much but we were all together. which is the most important part!

and then there’s new years of course! cheers to a new year! i feel good going into this one. i feel like i have a plan in order to alleviate being quite so overworked for once in my life. i think it’ll be a good one! we have a new little squirt this year & feel complete. we have built up strength & resilience after going through some very hard times & i think we are better equipped to handle things that get thrown our way. feeling blessed! happy new year everyone.

thanks for enduring this long post…now you get awarded by receiving the link to the awesomely talented krista campbell of krista campbell photography! to see how she views the holidays click here!