Holiday Survival

Well … we have surpassed the holidays of 2023! I have to say every year as I get older the holiday season gets shorter and shorter! We never seem to have less to do even though the time seems so much shorter. I do miss the days of being a child and thinking December 1st to the 25th is the longest days of my life! I know my kids still feel that way now!

Every year I try to be intentional about a few gifts and make them more of a ‘family’ gift for the year and this year was no different. Chris and I purchased bathrobes for the whole family! We racked our brains to come up with a way to bring them all together and after much thinking and brainstorming we decided on Winnie The Pooh. Let’s be honest, you cannot really go wrong with Pooh. We read about the characteristics of each character and matched them up with our family. Here’s what we came up with:

Winnie The Pooh goes to Alyssa. She is our soft and quiet, kind and lovable one. She comes with a big heart but does not care for big crowds!

Roo goes to Jacksyn. He is our silly and energetic one for sure! He is charming and cuddly and the youngest of the group! Roo wants to be just like Tigger when he grows up.

Tigger goes to Niklas. Niklas is our adventurous, fearless, happy and outgoing one. He can sometimes find himself in a little bit of trouble even.

Piglet goes to Carly. Carly is our tiny, anxious, but so sweet one! She feels brave after a little encouragement from her loved ones and looks up to Winnie the Pooh.

Owl goes to Chris. He is our wise and knowledgeable one. He is the one we seek out for questions and also the one that tends to ramble on a bit once you get him started.

and lastly…. Eeyore goes to me! Probably not hard to guess if you know me but my love for Eeyore is not random by any means. I am the sad and depressed one at times, but most often anxious and worried. I care a lot for those people and love and that is where my focus, and Eeyore’s, always is.

I was worried the kids wouldn’t find the fun in the characters but so far I think they have. I put our names and our characters on each robe in vinyl and they did turn out pretty cute.

We are working on getting settled into the new year. I have worked overnight shifts for the past 20 years and decided to switch things up a bit and now I work day shift. Big change for me and my family so we are getting used to what it is like to have mom home every night. I feel the change is going to be positive over all but its taking a little getting used to I think for all of us.

I have never been much for resolutions but I try to come up with a word to aim for in the coming year. This year my word is GRATITUDE. I do feel like I occasionally take time to step back and be grateful for what I have but I would like to do it more. It has become so easy to ‘expect’ the normal things we have and not truly appreciate them. This year I just want to work on taking that extra minute and being thankful for something I often forget to recognize.

I have done gratitude journaling in the past and haven’t decided if I am going to take that up again or just be more mindful of it. My goal is to make it more of a normal thought process and hopefully my children can see that in me and hopefully start being more thankful on their own too. I don’t think we will every run out of things to be thankful for and that in itself is something I am thankful for.

Our Together Family hopes your holiday season was one to remember! We hope you got lots of pictures to help those memories last and cherish the time you had with family young and old. I hope the new year finds you motivated and excited for your new adventures and happy and healthy in all that you do!

We would love to hear what you are aiming for in this coming year! Feel free to share with us so we can help encourage you on your way!