You know it's not all about Santa...

This little one never fails to surprise me. The way his brain works astonishes me. He is always thinking.

He is quite the introvert. During the school year, we don't get a lot out of him when he is at home. As an introvert, he has spent almost every ounce of energy during his 9.5 hours at school. #workingmomproblems So when we get home we get a lot of one-word answers. I get it...it took me a while to get it, but I get it. He's an introvert. He needs a while to recharge.

When we have full days together, he does a lot of talking. I mean a lot.

One day he looked at me and said, "Mom, you know Christmas isn't all about Santa, right?" I told him I thought I knew that but to help me understand better.

He launches into a very detailed about the 'reason for the season'. I keep very quiet which for anyone who knows me knows that was difficult. I let him explain the miraculous birth that happened so many years ago and the baby that was sent down to save us.

When he got done, I guess he is used to me talking more than listening. He looked at me with his little head cocked to one side and said, "You get it?"

Yes, Luke, I get it. I am so glad you get it too.

Christmas Cards

Merry Christmas from the Asbells!

Last year I explained how much I love Christmas cards. I still do. There is a lot of work that goes into it, but being able to thumb through the years of Christmas cards and see all our friends and families grow up just hits that nostalgic button for me.

Eight years of collecting cards. Eight years of us sending cards.

In years' past, I have always had a slight panic when it comes to taking the Christmas card picture. This year was no different. I panicked without much action. I would just casually say to John, "Oh my goshhhhh, I haven't even taken the Christmas card picture yet," and then go about our day with no plans to actually take the picture. Effective, I know.

One day as I had just sat down to read a book John pokes his head in the room and says, "Hey....today would be a really good day to get the picture." Cue internal freakout. But where will we go? What will they wear? Before I could even UTTER a single one of these worries out loud, John interjects with "and I have their clothes already laid out. I bet a picture by the tree would be good."

Wait. Where is my freak out moment? Where is my panic?

It takes about 15 minutes from start to finish to get the boys dressed and capture the picture I want. Maybe they are just getting older and it's not as hard to wrangle them. Maybe I am getting older and I understand the picture doesn't have to be perfect. Maybe it was just the perfect day and perfect time with the perfect husband to remind me to just do it.

But my favorite part is always the outtakes. Evan was trying to get Luke to adjust his head so he didn't have 6 chins which causes a lot of laughter from all of us.

It didn't take long to get the perfect picture of these imperfect boys. What I do know is they are perfect for me!

For more Christmas card posts from years past click here: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 (my favorite).

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving 2018

We had a quiet Thanksgiving this year. No out of town guest, no dinner at our house, just a couple days to rest, rejuvenate, and eat food other people made. :)

And DeeDee. We love DeeDee.

The weather was absolutely perfect so we started our afternoon with some backyard football. 

 

And before the sun went down, I was able to take some pictures with the family.

Then the boys got a hold of the camera. 

It's helpful to have these small quiet holidays to remind you that the hustle and bustle of big holidays are missed.

Branching Out

The fifth grade speech is a rite of passage at St. George's. Each fifth grader gives a speech to approximately 250 people (or more) on a character trait they picked. This speech is written at school with a speech advisor and is usually five to eight minutes long.

Now I know what some of y'all are thinking. A ten year old?? Speaking in front of 250 people?? For 5-8 minutes?? Yes. And they do it beautifully and it's all because of St. George's. Even the shyest, most introverted child will stand before everyone, give proper eye contact, speak with the correct volume and pace and deliver a speech he or she wrote on their own.

I have watched this tradition for the past 12 years. I never knew how much it meant until it was my child at the podium.

Evan gave his fifth grade speech on November 16, 2018. He chose Branching Out as his topic, and his advisor was Tracy Forbes. Evan couldn't wait to get started on his speech. He and Mrs. Forbes met for weeks working and perfecting his speech.

His speech day fell on Milk and Cookies Day, which is another SGIS tradition. One day a year during Book Week, students get to wear their PJs to school, have milk and cookies, and spend a majority of the day reading.

Naturally, Evan thought he would just give his speech in his pajamas. Naturally, I did not. When discussing this with my friends over lunch one day, I seemed to be the only person who thought he should wear a suit, what boys traditionally wear to give their speech, on the 16th. Everyone else called me a terrible mother for even thinking about putting him in a suit while the rest of the school was in PJs. Well, maybe that is a tad bit dramatic...

I finally consented and thought, "Well this will definitely be branching out." 

His speech was meaningful, timely, appropriate, and funny. He even managed to throw a rap in there. 

As always he had a huge fan base supporting him. I hope he realizes how much he is loved. There were proud tears by many.  

Evan - we are so proud of you! I pray you keep branching out for years and years to come!!

Click here to watch his speech (and watch the brothers at the very beginning...)

The year we had TWO Halloweens

During Fall Break we were able to get the house ready for Halloween! Village Park does it up RIGHT for Halloween! We had to make sure our house was up to snuff.

Evan took FOREVER to figure out what he wanted to be. Thankfully, Luke knew exactly what he wanted to be AND we already had the costume!!!

Evan decided he wanted to be a Fortnite character, so off to the costume shop we went. Thankfully, after pricing out the costume, he found another one he wanted!

We started the day at school with a great assembly led by the 5th grade Citizenship Council!

Both boys had a great Halloween party at school!

Now to the two Halloweens. There was a HUGE thunderstorm coming on Halloween night, which fell on a Wednesday. So our neighborhood planned to have a "Halloween block party" on Tuesday night. We bought our bowl of candy and sat out on the street with all the neighbors. 

Thankfully, the rain held off a little while on Wednesday. Long enough for the boys to go down the street and back for night two of Halloween! 

As always, we had a big crew to go Trick of Treating with! This was the only picture I could get of the night though! The rest was a blur! Halloween at its best!!!

Tough Enough??

I have been to 12 Tough Enoughs in my St. George's career. This was the first time I cried.

Tough Enough started out great. Luke and the Gryphon Drum Brigade kicked off the event with their powerful beats!

Then were the races. This year we had the track all to ourselves, so all the parents sat in the bleachers. Evan had been looking forward to Tough Enough for weeks. His teachers had an incentive for the kids. They were 'racing' 3 adults. If they beat the adults time, they got to skip a homework assignment....a BIG homework assignment. 

Luke was up first. I saw him line up, but again, was sitting in the bleachers. The teachers signaled go, and Luke took off...and fell down. There was such a crowd that he when he fell, he fell hard and then got stepped on. I saw him get up, but about 5 seconds into the run saw he was limping. 

I sprinted off the bleachers and went down to the field. My poor baby ran the entire length of the track limping and in last place. He didn't give up. He ran the entire way. I knew something was very wrong when he didn't stop limping. Luke is my pretty tough guy. He's not one to drone on and on and on. When he finally reached the finish line...again...last, he was crying so hard he could barely breathe. His knee started swelling pretty soon after he sat down. 

I hugged him and hugged him telling him that I was so proud of him for finishing. He kept crying saying, "I wanted you, mommy. I wanted you. I was crying for you, mommy." Oh my heart. It broke into about 1000 pieces. I just kept holding him and telling him how proud I was of him for finishing and not giving up. That is what being TOUGH ENOUGH is all about. 

By this time, Evan had started running. I got to the track to cheer him on. I knew how excited he was about this! When he crossed the finish line, 6th place of all the boys, his teacher said, "You beat their time!!" He didn't give her a second glance. He immediately found me and said, "Where is Luke? Is he okay? Take me to Luke!!!" 

Evan had looked forward to this for about a month, but when it was done, all he could think about was Luke. He just wanted to make sure he was okay and take care of him. 

 Thankfully the next day, Luke's knee had gone down a little bit. It wasn't quite as swollen. We had a couple of sweet teachers text us and check on us after seeing what happened.

Even though we don't like to talk about it, I still like to remind him, finishing what you start is important but taking care of the ones we love is even more important.