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I promised this place a post and here we are. I'm not promising good writing, however. This is the one place where there isn't the pressure to be clever or funny or smart. Thank goodness.

I'm getting sick, I do believe. Cramps, the sneaky kind, came this morning. The sore throat started in the night and now my ears feel full and hot. Blech. I asked my husband to take care of me; sometimes I just need that. He is, thank goodness.

I talked to my Mom when they got back home after being here for Thanksgiving. After going through a long story about how her brother's family isn't sending gifts outside of their immediate family, and saying that my brother told her we wanted a simple Christmas, she wanted to know what that meant. "Are you having money trouble?", she asked. I wanted to say, "uhhh, no, but like, the WHOLE WORLD is?" But I didn't. I tried to be gentle about it. My parents tend to go overboard at Christmas and it makes me and my brother nervous.

I just want to be with them when we go visit, without coming home with a carload of stuff we don't need. I don't want to seem ungrateful for all of the toys my kids got last year but an entire minivan full of toys is entirely too many for 2 children.

They took my poor brother to the Mall the day after Thanksgiving and he all but had a panic attack. My sweet, thrift store shopping baby brother, forced into Black Friday MADNESS. Geez, Louize rentals (our name for our parents).

I'm giving books this year. It's what I always used to do, before I let the pressure of keeping up with my parents get to me. Books, hand painted canvas bags to hold them, and I think some small little photo albums of each person with the boys. Good gifts, that aren't expensive, but still meaningful. Right?

We're doing a generally good Christmas for the boys here at home. But tonight we start Advent time. Last year was our first cycle and Winston LOVED it. We have a book, with doors you open everyday, and books that focus on the real Christmas story. Lots of fun Santa-y books fill out our story times too, but I really tried hard to find good Nativity-related stories to read to them.

I'm thinking of doing a post everyday of Advent. They could be stories from past Christmas's, or links to songs, or whatever my brain spits out. It would, if nothing else, help me remember next year what we did every night, and keep a memory of it for the boys.

Tonight we're hanging up the advent calendar, made of Christmas socks. We're read Olivia Helps With Christmas, and find the website we used last year. I'll link to it tomorrow.

Thanks for being an open space for me. To just talk as I do and love me still.