Winter Break

So, let me just start off by saying that I have been an aunt for almost three years now. One eccentric and bubbly niece, Maggie, and three rough, sweet, and handsome nephews, Cooper, Connor, and Ryun! The love from those kiddos is the greatest blessing I've ever felt. However, this year traditions that I have known since I was in elementary school took the back burner for sure.

My amazing big sis Kristen, who is getting married this year (whoop whoop), got to come home from Nashville with her fiancé for a wholeeeee week :-) Her and I spent that time baking fifty-one dozen cookies (no, really), babysitting the kiddos, and just hanging out with our big, loud family. Only getting to see my biggest fan a handful of times a year is rough, simply put, but moments when our entire family is together is oh, so memorable! 

Christmas day was W I L D. My mother and I got up around 7am to get the turkey and ham in the ovens (yes, we have both because of the enormity of my family), followed by my sisters joining us a little later. Now, normally after that the my brother and dad would join the girls in the living room and we would start opening gifts. That even happened last year when Maggie and Cooper were a little younger and my sisters were pregnant with the next batch of boys. Instead of this though, we waited for my two sisters who have families and live close by to come over around noon.

In the mean time, my mother, sisters who aren't married yet, and I kept cooking to fill the time and get it done. When we were close to being done around noon and my sisters families had shown up, we ate then. After eating we hung out until around three p.m. and napped of the food. 

About six hours after we normally would have started to hang out and open gifts 'Santa' brought us, we congregated in the living room and began! The main focus was surely on our time together since we are rarely all together.

No complaints here at all, it was just different. Being the baby, I really have always struggle with my big sisters and brother growing up and starting their own lives without me. The change in our traditions especially haven't always been easy for the baby of the family. 

At the end of the day, there's one thing that sticks out to me most: I am so lucky to have these people in my life who make it so hard to not see all the time. I am lucky that He blessed me with these memories filled with love, family and friends.

Click the link below to stay up to date on all my posts :-) 

Xx, Grace.