Being the Bowens: Holidaze

Christmas is over, and though we made wonderful memories celebrating Christ's birth, I'm not too sorry to see it go this year!
Here's a recap with some random notes thrown in:
- There's a lot of pressure on moms during the holidays! It feels like the sole responsibility of the mother to ensure the children have all the special Christmasy experiences that they're "supposed to", like baking cookies and making hand print reindeer and keeping up with every cherished tradition...it's too much! I reminded myself that having a not-psycho mom is definitely more beneficial for my kids than trying to do too much.
- Along those lines, I don't remember Christmas being so insane when I was a kid! When did Christmas explode??? ?It must have been between my childhood and having kids of my own- Elf on a Shelf?? Seriously??? As if moms don't have enough to do! I always thought I would love having tons of Christmas traditions with my kids, but we're intentionally limiting ours so that we don't feel enslaved to them! What works one year may not the next. Maybe next year we'll have matching jammies, maybe we'll cut down our own tree, maybe load up the kids and drive around and look at lights after bedtime, but I don't want to feel like I've failed my family if we don't. Two things are for sure, though: We'll do advent in December and bring out our growing collection of Christ-centered Christmas books and there will NEVER be an elf on any shelf in our house. Highlights from this year included cheeseburgers at a favorite restaurant with Blake's parents, an evening spent looking at the awesome lights in Williams, a game night with friends, the firefighters coming by in the truck bringing candy canes, making birthday cards for Jesus, having a Christmas carnival/scavenger hunt Christmas afternoon with some friends, special Christmas breakfast, making some homemade gifts (remind me not to do this next year!), loving the kids' enthusiasm for advent each night, and spending lots of low key time just our own little family.