A moment of silence please for a real Judy Garland Christmas song.
Thank you.
Moving on.
I’ll be popping in briefly here and there this week, but mostly, I will be enjoying a whole lot of this.
I want a baby slung on my hip, a warm coffee cup cradled in my palm, and a blonde little girl making creative messes in the kitchen.
I’ve had this problem my whole life of visualizing what I want Christmas to look like. And it’s always picturesque in this storybook kind of way almost to the point of ridiculousness. Like the burly father comes in from blustery winds bearing a heap of firewood, and children dressed in Christmas finest are huddled around a piano singing Silent Night in perfect harmony. Cue Mother busting through the kitchen door with rosy cheeks, a plastered smile and a golden turkey garnished with baked apples. And everyone lives happily ever after.
Okay, maybe we’re not living in the late 1800’s and maybe Louisa May Alcott doesn’t write my visions. But I have learned that real life is different from dream life, and I’ve managed to merge the two over the years. The moral of the story is this…If you want it, work hard to create it, but leave cushion for the unexpected and embrace everything outside of that “perfect” vision as good and meaningful parts of your story you would have never had the opportunity to know had you stuck to the script. Ad lib, go with it, swim with the current. In the end, what you will have created, albeit a Christmas memory or life’s final script…it will be good.
We made Christmas cookies last night. Or let me clarify. We set out to make Christmas cookies, but one batch in, we fell victim to the charm of a movie and a fire and, forty minutes and a smoky kitchen later, we canned the cookie thing altogether.
We made up for it.
And I haven’t even bothered to clean the mess in the kitchen yet. I’m goin’ with the unscripted beauty thing.
And Lainey and I had a mama date with friends this weekend with her first trip to the theater to see Tangled.
She had fun with Baylee and I inhaled the moment in the dark theater when she crawled into my lap at a “scary” part, but I admit, I made a big deal of this when she probably wasn’t ready. She told me later she didn’t want to go back to the movies and then she took the Rapunzel doll Baylee got her and chopped all her hair off when I wasn’t looking.
So, home it is.
Battoning down the hatches.
Love it. Enjoy all that is Christmas!
Oh my gosh, THAT baby! Oh, she has a smile that could melt the hardest, ice-cold heart. Your blog is amazing.
Merry Christmas Kelle!
I do the same thing and then I remember that my fav christmas as a child was the one where we had to eat sandwiches cause Mom burned the ham!!
dizzyhappymama.blogspot.com
Merry Christmas! Hope your christmas is perfect!!
Am loving this post.. Enjoy your time at home 🙂
Merry Christmas!
I hope you, your husband, and the girls have a great Christmas! 🙂 It’s definitely the best time of the year! Enjoy!
xoxo
Merry Christmas Kelle to you and your precious family.
From ours…
http://www.piggfamilyblog.blogspot.com
Sounds pretty prefect/typical for me. Your girls always have the best clothes…where do you get them? You don’t make them, do you? XOXO
I always imagine Christmas morning to be a magical thing. I keep telling myself, if there is anytime to be supermom it is now. I am playing hookie from teaching fourth grade today (first time ever) to do some work and bake some cookies my little Emmett can eat on Christmas morning. His first Christmas will be AMAZING, even if it kills me. To top it off, weather is calling for snow. A white Christmas for his first, perfection. I hope you have a magical week!
If you would have asked me six years ago at Christmastime – as I was sitting on the beach in Mexico at midnight with my friends drinking giant bottles of Sol – if it ever got better than this, I would have said absolutely not. But yesterday, as my husband and I watched our 2 year old William stomp through the house with plastic chains hanging from his belt loops, shouting, “Change your ways Scrooge!” – well, anyway, the laugh tears rolled. Merriest Christmas.
I have the same Christmas vision in my head. I want everything to be dreamy, and you’re right, I too have learned to mix the two and not to expect too much but just embrace. I finally learned that and after celebrating our nine yr old’s bday last week I can say it was perfect…. our lives may not be what we had planned, but we learn to love our new “normal” and then the mix of real life and the vision work together beautifully. Merry Christmas!
Enjoy your “home week”! I hope it’s fabulous!
I think I love you. That is just how I feel, too, about the holidays. Making it perfect in my mind (to the point of overboard). Each window is decorated with snowflakes & popcorn/cranberry garlands, the children are making ornaments at the table while eating gingerbread men, cinnamon & orange & cloves are simmering on the stove while I’m putting the finishing touches on the handmade gifts……alas.
I’ve been wanting to tell you…..
I am really proud of you. As if I was your mother or something! I live the special life, too. Our 4 year old son is in a wheelchair and can do not a single thing for himself. I am so amazed when I read Nella’s birth story, that you recovered so well after just one night. I’m sure you experience the roller coaster ride still but it took me 2 years to get out of complete grief & heartache. Now, it’s just beautiful beautiful!
Because of Wyatt’ slow progress, we really appreciate all that he can do & party over the small miracles. He’s the happiest guy you’ll ever meet and I am grateful that his smile means more to me now, than all the piddly stuff I had once hoped from a typical son.
YA KNOW?!!
Love, Bree
Kel you are an amazing mama. Those girls will have such great memories of Christmas. Not of toys or gifts but of LOVE that covered them during the Christmas season and everyday of their lives. The kind of love that some kids dream about having.
Love this!
And by the way, I totally love heather, too. She is how I found your blog. Wahoo!
Love, Bree
Merry Christmas Hamptons! Enjoy those sweet girls and all that is Christmas!
i love how you can make even a messy floury kitchen look good in photos 🙂
Happy Christmas Week xxx
I wouldn’t exactly call your vision of Christmas a “problem.” If anything, it’s a scrumptious daydream that you get to revisit each winter….And besides, storybook daydreams are usually the most fun and colorful =)
Judy Garland does have the richest expressive voice. This is one of my favourites. You are right- sometimes we just have to look for moments among the mundane and see the beauty:)
Tangled looks like a good movie. Heck, I’m almost 23 and I still love Disney movies like I was 5 or something haha.
Have a good week this week and Merry Christmas!!!!!
Why is it that whenever I read your posts I always cry at how beautiful Lainey and Nella are? Sigh, since having my daughter 5 months ago, I tend to cry at nearly everything, not in the Post Partum Depression kind of way, but in the “oh everything is so beautiful and touching” kind of way.
A dear friend and I took our 3 year olds to see Tangled yesterday! Mine crawled into my lap in soft little sobs when a particularly sad scene played on the screen. What an experience.
SOAK IT UP…all of it, just soak it up!
Joyeux Noel 🙂
If you need a bit of wildness thrown into your “picture perfect” Christmas, just let me know!!! A few little boys would definitely add adventure to your Christmas!!!
Life is ALWAYS unexpected at OUR house!
“If you want it, work hard to create it, but leave cushion for the unexpected and embrace everything outside of that “perfect” vision as good and meaningful parts of your story you would have never had the opportunity to know had you stuck to the script. Ad lib, go with it, swim with the current. In the end, what you will have created, albeit a Christmas memory or life’s final script…it will be good.”
I love what you said there! It’s great advice, not only for Christmas, but for everyday.
It’s cute that Lainey had her first trip to the theater. I can’t even remember my first movie trip. Too bad she was scared a little from the movie, but I’m sure it’ll be a great memory for her! Unless she’s like me that is!
And hey, if a good movie is on, cookie time can wait!
I was laughing out loud at sweet Lainey chopping the hair off the Rapunzel doll. Kinda reminds me of when I was a child and my Mom sat me down at 4 or 5 to watch The Wizard of Oz for the first time. I’m certain it’s a decision she still regrets, considering I think I refused to sleep in my bed alone for a good 4 months after that! Ha!
Loving your blog, still so much to do for Christmas, but I needed your blog on this very “manic” Monday.
Happy Holidays to you and yours, Kelle!
http://www.bobbyandhismommy.blogspot.com (I’d be BEYOND honored if you’d check it out sometime!)
Today is our first real day of Christmas break and everyone but the 10 month old is still in their pjs. He’s too messy to stay in any one outfit for long 😉
Merry Christmas Week!
I particularly like the shot of you on the couch with a beer, I tmakes me feel all warm and cozy. I would love to have a night watching great movies with a friend and some brewskies.
aww your living room looks so comfy-cozy! merry christmas! the girls are just too adorable
LOL at the hair chopping.
My 19 year old sister took my 3 year old to see Tangled, as an excuse to be there. 😉 And my daughter said it was “too scary” and hopped in her lap too. But a couple days ago she ran into my room first thing in the morning saying, “Mommy, I want to see that movie again, Tangled. Can we go see it?” So I don’t think she’s scarred for life.
I want to thank you for the judy garland song.. loved it.. batten down the hatches and enjoy your version of Christmas….
I love how on the movie sign in back of the girls it says “Burlesque”. I had a laugh about that. Judy Garland is awesome and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is one of my favorites. So is “Meet Me In St. Louis” the movie it came from! Merry Christmas Kelle! Enjoy!
Sweet… Home…. Cookies….mess…love….
Movies…Christmas.
C.
Hellakids.blogspot.com
Cookies, movies, warmth while the snow flies outside…all my idea of the perfect holiday season.
My oldest was four when I took her to a movie in a theater for the first time and she crawled into my lap at the beginning and didn’t leave it. She thought it was much too loud. She’s seven now and LOVES the theater.
My youngest just turned four and sat in my lap during the showing of Tangled we saw on Thanksgiving. I think no matter how old they are (as long as they’re younger than nine, perhaps) they’re going to want to sit in mom’s lap their first visit.
Love the way you put words together.
Oh that Lainey, Cutting her dolls hair! isn’t that what happens in the movie?
I used to “draw” on my “babies”. It drove my Mother crazy! When I had my own daughter she gave me this sack of stuff. In it was a bunch of my old dolls. Yes, they had marks all other them, and “hair cuts”. When my daughter saw them she said “WHAT happened to those dolls?!?!” and I just smiled and said the same thing that happens to your babies…you LOVE them and sometimes leave a mark!”
MERRY CHRISTMAS Kelle!
When you asked me if Mia liked “Tangled”, I forgot to add that it did have parts that scared her. I was holding Mia and Morgan both in my lap at various times throughout the movie. That’s how all of the Disney movies are for the first time. A little overwhelming with the villain stuff. But ‘Punzel is ALL she can talk about now and she really wants to go see it again. But my favorite part was when Rapunzel and the mean Witch Mom exchanged their love for each other (“I love you. I love you more. I love you the most.”) My 3 youngest kept saying, “Mommy that’s you” because that’s what we always say to each other. Not lovin’ being compared to a psycho witch mom who never let her stolen child leave the castle to explore the world. I love that Lainey cut the doll’s hair. Just letting you know she liked the happy ending of the movie much better than the scary parts.
xo.
Wishing you and your family a beautiful, magical merry Christmas!! Can’t wait to see the post Christmas post.
I’m looking forward to our 2nd Christmas with our beautiful twins. It should be so much more fun this year!!
“Ad lib, go with it, swim with the current”…Just the words I needed to hear this morning and the inspiration for my Christmas post 🙂
I look forward to your blog each morning!
xo
Jill
http://jillianspence.blogspot.com/
The late 1800’s are way overrated. You know, what with the dying of consumption and all.
On a serious note though, thank you for continuing to be such a poetic and meaningful voice. So many of my favorite parenting-oriented blogs keep turning into fluffy lifestyle magazines, with nothing but makeup tutorials and heavily-pimped sponsorships, and I love that you balance the business of blogging and the eloquence of writing with such grace.
Have an amazing, beautiful Christmas, and I look forward to reading more of your well-crafted words in the new year. 🙂
,,,rapunzel is sporting the new “pixi do”,,,nella IS the christmas cookie she’s so sweet,,,
J’adore et tu m’inspires tellement, j’ai même essayé de faire une guirlande moi-aussi, merci!
To see what I did after I came here:
http://mamanbooh.blogspot.com/2010/12/lesprit-de-noel-jr-15-ma-guirlande.html
Love, x0x
mmmm….dunkin donuts coffee! LMAO at Lanie chopping off barbie hair, I used to give my dolls haircuts all the time and then cry when the hair didn’t grow back. we are doing some baking today, I’ll try to remember to turn on the timer. Happy Holidays!
Wonderful way to spend the week! Wishing your family a very Merry Christmas!
I just exhaled as I read your post. Thanks for giving me permission to just “go with the flow” this Christmas. I will be doing just that.
Sweet post, Kelle!
Wishing the Hampton family a wonderful and warm Christmas – with all that’s wonderful for 2011….
Thanks for sharing 2010 with us!
Rosemary
Oh, how I covet the mitten garland; I went to Joann’s to get mittens to make my own and there were no more. :/
Our O-man had the same experience at Toy Story 3, lots of hiding and peeping through the spaces in the chairs.
merry christmas to you and your family!
we threw together a batch of applesauce and cinnamon ornaments … made all the better because it didn’t matter if anyone sneezed on them!
and it smelled good. and you bake ’em or just let them sit overnight. so really no chance for burnage.
score.
and she’s definitely not scarred for life on the movie thing. cora was the same way a few weeks ago with toy story 3 (her first) … and now she’s all pumped about seeing tangled with auntie lulu.
take care dear.
enjoy the time with your family!
I think that reality is almost as good as any ‘dream’ we could think of, because it ways it is completely better than any fantasy we could create anyway.
I hope your week leading up to, and the day of, Christmas is amazing. Enjoy christmas with your wonderful family, and I’m sure Nella’s 1st christmas is going to be fantastic. I wonder if she’ll love the wrapping paper more than the gift itself? All my baby cousins did!
We’ve done our christmas baking in my house (batches and batches of cookies and tons of cupcakes and even a run in with my jeans and some nasty green food colouring…), and let me tell you, it is fun and festive and makes you feel like martha stewart but when I’m out of that baking mood i am OUT. and i’m usually out for the cleaning up part..haha. but i do it and feel even more accomplished when the kitchen looks even more shinier than before.
I can’t believe it’s less than a week until christmas! I hope it flys (: Me and my sister always watch the jim carrey version of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas every year on xmas eve, and that’s how I know christmas is right around the corner. It’s a tradition her and I started forever ago, and it’s something I want to continue. Reading how you create this magical setting for your girls around this time of year just makes me want to attempt to do that too.
Happy Holidays from my family to yours!
Hee hee, love the “battoning down the hatches” reference, as I sit here watching Caillou with my 2.5-yr-old 😉
Also, your tree is FAB!
Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family Kelle!
Love,
Cheryl D in MI
sweet little pajama clad children….smiling faces….that magical light from the tree….drinks in hand….a song in your heart….I’d say you darn near have perfected it, my faraway blogging friend. Sounds more than perfectly Christmas to me. Enjoy. And well done.
Every Christmas is different and perfect in its own way. Each Christmas of the past building memories for the future. susan
The flexible beauty mentality is brilliant. I’m setting out to adopt it.
Have a beautiful week!
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Have a fun holiday week! Nella’s
1st will be a blast! Can’t wait to see pictures!
Thanks for playing my favorite version of my favorite Christmas song. 🙂 Hope that you have a great holiday.
She cut off Rapunzel’s hair! That is priceless! Little ones and the funny things they do… Each child and their antics could fill volumes, I tell you!
Happy merry-making. We’re settling in for the same things around here and got to enjoy some fat, puffy snowflakes this morning to welcome in the week.
Cheers!
Our Calvin has had two failed attempts at the movies so far. He’s 5. And a HALF!. He’s supposed to go see Tangled this week with his Nana and Ruby and his cousins, but now I’m a little skerred for him! How scary is scary? Could you please telepathically answer that for me? I’ll be sitting Indian-style with my palms facing up while I wait…
Old fashioned, vintage, antique…..my favorite words! Little Women, Judy Garland, quilts, peppermint hot chocolate and a real wood fire….YES! I love it all! I always tell people, “I should have been born into the 1800’s and my name should have been Laura Ingalls :). I love the way you do things, Kelle. And you’re creating magic for your beautiful family…and not just in a nostalgic way, but also in a real-life way.
Merry Christmas to my favorite Little Women in cyber-space 🙂
Kelly Cach
Thank you. Thank you for your amazing insight into life and mommy-hood. I seem to spiral into a pretty horrid depression every year around this time because the holidays aren’t matching my *perfect* vision. (And, what I believe everyone else thinks our holiday should look like.) Thank you for helping me give myself permission to enjoy what is and not worry about what I’m not able to get done. Thank you for helping me see the beauty in the crazy, messy everyday that is my life.
May you and yours have a beautiful, love-filled Christmas.
Hey Kelle~I just recently posted something about having two lives, the real one & the one I live in my head & my goal this coming year is to merge to two. Glad to know I’m not alone. While our dream lives my be rich with color & wonder & no messes or mistakes, reality has some exquisite moments too. So who cares if the cookies don’t look like the ones in the magazine..they taste fabulous!!
Enjoy this week & keep those home fires burning.
Enjoy those bundles of joy you have!
I do the same thing EVERY time I try baking!
While I look forward to refreshing this site in hopes to always find a new post waiting to be read, I hope that you can take a break this week and soak it all in!
Merry Christmas Hampton Family!…and a special Merry Christmas to Nella on her very first one!!
Merry Christmas Kelle! I hope that you, Brett, Lainey, and Nella have the magical Christmas you dreamed of. I too am determined to make Christmas memories with Emma that she will never forget.
Nothing like that Judy Garland version of the song… perfection. So sad and beautiful. Mmmm. Good!
I love it! I especially love the abandoned cookies in favor of something more enjoyable in-the-moment. Enjoy Miss Nella’s first Christmas and New Years!
Jen
http://lovingpeanut.blogspot.com
This is my favorite Christmas song:)
dearest Kelle,
those beauties are getting even cute,i did’nt think it was possible:) i too try so hard creating this image and most the time fail to step back and just enjoy the moment,this year i am going to do this!:) just wanted to let you know tomorrow i go in to be induced on our 5th little,you were the first person i told i was expecting as silly as that sounds cause we were so afraid to tell anyone because of misscarriage so i thought telling you was a safe option:) and i had to share with someone,lol.Anyhoo i hope you have an amazing christmas with those gorgeous babies,how exciting for Nella to have her first christmas.
Merry Christmas Kelle! I love that she had a big girl outing. They grow up so quickly. I can’t really take it. I think I have told you before that I am so sad about Kaish getting bigger. I keep on sprinkling magic stop growing up dust and it does not work! : (
Wishing you a joyous week!
Merry Christmas to you & your family!!! Enjoy it! I too, have those “perfect” christmas visions, but I agree, the way it happens is really the perfect way.
I can totally relate to the “idea” of Christmas not being what we expect always. But I too am trying to be in the moment. God surpasses my greatest expectations most all of the time. Hope you have a lovely Christmas full of unexpected small things to enjoy 🙂
p.s. Merry Christmas, Life with Kaishon 🙂
Hilarious that Lainey chopped off her hair!! She just wanted to make sure you got the point. 🙂
Wait til she whacks her own hair off! I arrived to preschool one day and was handed a little plastic bag with Jade’s long blond hair in it. She managed to cut a long piece from the side of her head the minute the teachers weren’t looking.
And of course we all own a grade school picture where our bangs are hacked off 4 inches above our eyebrows!
Happy homey time (and not in a home-girl way)!
sorry if the kiddo is traumatized, but chopping the hair off the doll is a wicked cute coping mechanism ! 😉
have a cozyhappychrismas 😀
Sounds like a perfect kind of Christmas. and better her dolls hair than her own, right?
I love that Judy Garland song that I think you are referring to. Her rendition of it at the end of Meet Me in St. Louis always makes me tear up.
Your home looks warm and inviting and all dressed for the holiday. Love it.
Merry, merry to you.
P.S. The editor in me just won’t hush it: It should be “battening” not “battoning” the hatches. 😉
Jennifer
bug and the sweet banana
Of course, I could have just raised the volume on my speakers and actually -heard- the Judy Garland song instead of guessing which one it was. This sinus infection I’m fighting has taken out my common sense. 😉
I love that she chopped off her hair, that is TOO funny.
Marry Christmas to you and your family Kelle XO
The movie thing cracks me up–Leeor took Avi to see Tangled (I wanted to take him so badly but the movies are their thing together and our baby was sick so I took her to the doctor while they went) and he references it by, “The movie we saw yesterday,” as in, “Mommy, you look like the girl in the movie we saw yesterday, what was her name?” And I totally don’t look like a Disney princess but it still felt like a huge compliment.
Enjoy your family time! I am looking forward to some of it myself!
Nella’s smile gets me overtime! 🙂
Judy Garland singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” has jumped to my number one favorite Christmas song this year…it’s perfection.
Lainey chopping off Rapunzel’s long locks cracked me up!
Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Kelle! I dream up the unicorn and rainbow version of the holidays too…you’re in good company.
The joy is palpable in that pic with Lainey and the popcorn. Merry Christmas and thanks for the song!
My 3-year old and her little friend & mom had a movie date to see Tangled a few weeks ago. It was my little ones first time at the movies and she didn’t move or make a peep the entire time. When the movie was over and the lights came on she burst into tears and said that she wanted to stay and watch another movie on the big TV. Such a memorable moment for her first time at the movies!
Warmest wishes to you and your family this Christmas. I can’t wait to read more about your adventures in 2011!
…and sometimes the season brings such a sensitivity to things tender, your heart hurts. Here’s a shout out to all those single moms who are working long hours, skipping lunches and hair appointments, picking up extra shifts and giving up things they want and need just to make the holiday special for your littles. I am picking up something for a little girl beyond my own…and giving it to a girl I see working at two stores in the plaza near my home. She is a single mom who so loves her little girl–she has shown me photos of her whenever I ask about her. She works long, long hours for her. Not sure why I am rambling about this, but just want those single mom readers out there to know you’re appreciated!!! Hugs and holly to you! –Poppa
Oh, no! Sorry to hear Lainey was frightened during her first theatre experience. Young pollywog will be ready someday…
These pictures are just perfect. They make me so happy.
Oh Kelle I should have read this 12 hours earlier today. My family set off to downtown Chicago. I had high hopes for the day visiting Santa, the outdoor European market, Navy Pier, our son’s first train ride. Oh my perfect holiday adventure I have pictured it all week. Our son ended up melting down a bunch of times thoughout the day…hello terrible 2s. Which stresses my husband out so I snapped at my husband way too many times. Our son wanted nothing to do with Santa. It was way too cold for the outdooe market. DS cried through lunch and slept through Navy Pier. I so should have channeled you today but instead I focused on all the negative. I wish I could redo our day. I need to focus enjoying the small things instead of the big picture.
I stayed up the ENTIRE night. At 10:05pm, I stumbled across your blog, and proceeded to read every. single. post and look at every shared photo and then 10:11am came. After a five hour nap at my computer desk, I commenced reading every smidgen of love and am a better person for having done so.
You’re a hero.
xoxo,
Bug & Ruby’s Gram
LOVE that picture of Lainey and Baylee holding hands going to the movies! Oh my sweet!!
enjoy your christmas with your family and the memories you will make . Happy first christmas to Nella and Lainey as sisters…
Love and Blessings
The doughtys
Merry Christmas! I’m glad we’ll get tidbits from you here and there but even more glad to know you’ll be soaking in all of Christmas’s deliciousness. I got to take my biggest little (4 years old) on a movie date with friends to see Tangled this past Saturday as well. And I too, relished the lap crawl during the scary part…and my little man is in fact a superhero and even got scared. 🙂 His first movie was UP, and he didn’t want to go back to the movies for a long time after that and still maintains he doesn’t like the movie. Maybe next year. 🙂 Nella’s smile warms my heart, and I love the pallet and snuggles and fire and love that fills your home! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO THE HAMPTONS!!!
Merry, merry Christmas, Kelle, to you and all your little things.
Thank you so much for helping me appreciate all the special little things in my own life this year, and for the gift of your beautiful blog.
Ah, thanks for the reminder for us to enjoy our Christmas be that it ends up being simply, perfectly imperfect. Alex is coming to life this Christmas; at 2.5, she is aware of everything versus years before. If she were a fire, I would be that hog that tries to absorb all of the joy and smiles and screeches until I feel it burn within the layers down to my skin.
Here’s wishing you, Brett, the boys, the girls, Rik, and the rest of your family a wonderful holiday. Hey ETST readers, here’s wishing all the rest of you joy and peace this Christmas.
Peace out. Back to Making my own magic….
-Jennifer from Annapolis
P.S. Kelle – My boy TOTALLY set me up with a camera and lenses for my 40th. OMG. I’m still saying that…OMG. Now I gotta go and figure the sucker out. Thank God one of my best friends is a professional photographer.
Thank you so much for posting about the “perfect” holidays. I think, especially as a new wife trying to form our own traditions, that I want everything to be absolutely perfect: the perfect Christmas cookies, the perfectly wrapped presents, the perfectly decorated tiny apartment. Thank you for the reminder that it’s totally okay for it to be perfectly unperfect.
Merry Christmas!
PS: The last picture of Nella is adorable!! 🙂
I fall victim to wanting holidays and birthdays and the like to be perfect. I’ve been so busy I haven’t felt truly “Christmas-y.” So, I am fighting the guilt of doing it all, getting it all done and pleasing every person and giving myself time to enjoy the cozy weather and the lights of my Christmas tree.
Ohhh, poor Lainey! I went to see Tangled with a girlfriend when it first came out, and I was a tad scared by Gothel… and I’m 16. Maybe she’ll like it better when she’s older?
I love the ‘moral of this story’. And I love that you drink cream, not milk in your coffee.
This comment has been removed by the author.
You’re so right about Christmas Kelle. I am all for the perfect image in our heads and for trying to create it, but if you stick to that too rigidly then you just ruin people’s fun with control freakery. So you made the effort to do the cookies, fab! But half way through, if a film looks like what people want, snuggle up and enjoy – good call!
Got to love that Lainey cut off Rapunzels hair. Don’t know what makes it such a classic, but it is.
One of many things i often see in so many pics of your girls’ expressions – a great sense of humour. Great asset for anyone, that!
Anyway, thank for your lovely blog which I’ve enjoyed all year. I’ve learned here, laughed here, cried here – but it has been a bright spark. I’ve been touched by so many of the other readers’ comments too, and often reflect on Rik’s words here.
Well Happy Happy, YES HAPPY Christmas to you and yours. Especially Little Miss my first Christmas! And actually especially to everyone else too.
Oh no with the Rapunzel hair. That is too funny. I took my girls to see it last weekend and they loved it. BUT they are quite a bit older. Why does Disney always have to push the scary card…not a fan. Anyhoo…love that you left the cookie mess. That makes me love you even more.
Can I just say I did a happy dance and let out a little squeal when I read your comment the other day. I know we’re not in junior high anymore, but sometimes I feel like we are. It really made my day…thank you:) Have a wonderful magical week with those sweet ones. Can’t wait to hear all about it.
so cute!!
http://itzalovestory.blogspot.com/
ok, first off i just have to say… i also have that blue piano/boat/animal toy i see in the background in one of the photos… does the “HEY BABY” one not FREAK YOU RIGHT OUT?!?! so creepy!
i was thinking today while i was driving, about how much i adore the changing of the seasons, and how it makes me feel so alive and brings up so many past memories for me. events and dates too, but mostly just the weather’s cues. humid summer breezes giving way to crisp fall air, snow-covered houses and chimney smoke, then the first hints of damp spring. marrow-sucking stuff. and then i thought about how insanely hard YOU
must have to work at making up for your lack of those weather changes!! they are EVERYTHING to me, and i get why taking a trip to utah in the winter, or montana in the fall, fills you with a breath of fresh life. i know you said you have adjusted to it, but i don’t know if i ever could. i love that you invent seasonal changes whenever you can, with the dried leaves and fake snow, or whatever you can find! i feel that need in my heart too, for those metaphors and images of our lives to mark our passing years. peace and love to you this christmas, kelle, and thankyou for impacting my life in 2010.
Enjoy your break, Kelle and Merry Christmas to you 🙂
Our Sundays were extremely similar — well, I had to stick with baking cookies even after I dropped an a cup of flour all over the floor and despite the fact that the overly-sensitive smoke detector kept going off each time I opened the oven because I need 6 dozen cookies for a cookie swap tomorrow night…
I, too, have the Norman Rockwell meets Martha Stewart vision of Christmas each and every year and I smile like a fool when I picture linen table cloths and lighted pillar candles, Christmas music playing softly in the background but barely heard over the laughs of my loved ones, the perfect meal and tree and gifts…. and then Christmas day comes and in walks my family… and the moment is over…
The dogs are barking. The fire won’t catch but our small house is warmed by each other’s company instead. And it’s not Rockwell meets Stewart at all… It’s more like… well, the Christmas Tree Store meets the Griswolds – the smoke alarm letting everyone know dinner is ready…
Some day I’ll get there!!!
~Beth
I thought the part about Lainey chopping Rapunzel’s hair was hilarious. Some inadvertent passive-aggressiveness, eh? 🙂
Kelle, you rock!
I had an awful day trying to play with all my boys. Logan is usually at Kindergarten and I have more time to spend with Lincoln and to do “therapy” with Levi. I didn’t get to therapy. I stress over him, like I can “make” him NOT have down syndrome. Then I read your quote “work hard to create it, but leave cushion for the unexpected and embrace everything outside of that “perfect” vision as good and meaningful parts of your story you would have never had the opportunity to know had you stuck to the script.”
Thank you for putting me back “in my place.”
Dunkin’ Donuts coffee is the BEST, is it not?
Great post as always.
Beautiful, heart-warming photos as always!
xxoo
I just love you, Kelle. I know that I and everyone else have said it ten million times but seriously, I love you!
Why can’t everyone get life like you do? I just love that you have made this snuggelly little home where we can all come and see how life should be lived.
Keep rolling with the punches and loving life as it is… real, crazy, fun, exciting, sometimes hard, but always an adventure!
I am in love with Nella’s sweet smile!
I feel the same way about the holidays. I want them to be as perfect as the vision I have in my head. This year we are doing the whole holiday thing on our own with no extended family. So I am working extra hard to make it special and start a few traditions.
Happy holidays to you and your family.
Merry Magical Christmas to you and your family! XOXO
Hi Kelle and Family,
I have been reading your blog for coming on close to a year now.
My name is Lauren, I am from South Africa and we are currently experiencing a Christmas heat wave of around 34 degrees celsius.
I read your blog religeously and just wanted to say that you really do inspire me. You have such an amazing outlook on life and your little girls are absolutely amazing.
I have a 19 month old little boy who is the light of my life, but at the same time, I struggle daily with trying to give him the love that he deserves.
Your blog encourages me to strive that much more and I am making an effort daily to go that extra mile.
I wish you and your family a blessid Christmas!
http://lifeatthegreenys.wordpress.com
Wishing you and your wonderful family a very blessed Christmas:)
I love that we all have our vision of Christmas and it’s beautiful. Hope your Christmas week is everything you could ever imagine!
christmas is so magical isnt it.
our parents made it magical for us and we try so hard to make it just as magical for our littles.
my sweet grandaughter who is five keeps telling me there is no
santa, knock it off maw maw, shes says!
i think i was 12 when i realized there was no santa. i think i was awfully naive, sheltered or a little of both!
but i gotta say, mama always made christmas good at our house.
Home is the best place to be this next week or so. Lying in front of the fire cuddles up with the littles and maybe the Big Guy, basking in the holiday glow!It’s marvelous.It is my entire plan for the next two weeks.WE have the big guy home for 2 consecutive weeks and I want every morsel of ever moment to count.I will be checking in periodically & checking in on you ( u are my daily read:)Wishing you and your family a blessed and magical Christmas!
Debi
Gotta love that Dunkin Donuts coffee…I’m sipping mine right now.
We too are having our home week & as my 4 year old likes to ask, “how many stay home days do we have mom?”
Enjoy your home week filled with perfect holiday moments & from our house to yours…Merry Christas!!
Lainey and Nella are ADORABLE! My favorites pictures are: Lainey with her popcorn and the last picture of Nella. :))
“Your journey has molded you for your greater good and it was exactly what it needed to be. Don’t think that you’ve lost time. There is no short-cutting to life. It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now. And now is right on time.” ~Asha Tyson
So my 5 year old daughter also got a little freaked out in Tangled. So Lainey is not alone. And I too felt bad for taking her.
Oh, how I wish I had a Poppa Rik in my life when I was raising my daughter alone. Forty years ago being a single mother was a disgrace, your cross to bare. Rik, you are giving your friend so much more than a present for her daughter. Your gift of respect is hers, forever.
Wishing all the Hamptons and Crydermans the best holiday season ever!
Carol from SW MI
KELLE – THANKS for Judy Garland! A moment of silence, indeed. Love it all and t hanks for sharing it all. Enjoy this wonderful Holiday season – I know you are! Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family, including of course Poppa Rik and his partner. Love from your Blog Mama~
have a fabulous week girlie….
xo
Your home is absolutely beautiful Kelle, the decorations, the WARMTH…not to mention those two beautiful pyjama clad angels snuggling by the fire. Wishing you, and your gorgeous family a beautiful Christmas filled with laughter and love. xo
Ahhhh I love a good fire! We’re waitin and prayin on the cute kiddos to snuggle with, but for now I will be content with watching my hubby attempt to build a fire (apparently we have ‘bad wood’) while snuggling with my dog.
rik,
you have such a sweet heart to care about the single moms. gosh indeed it is such a hard road.and you always end up feeling like your never doing eneough. i was a single mom when my kids were 12, 9, 5, and 3. and i so appreciated when a kind soul like yourself came along with even a kind word.
i got through it by the grace of God and i try to remember what it was like so im more inspired to help others,
you rock rik!
Kelle,
I was introduced to your blog from Farmgirl Paints – Becky 🙂 Isn’t she fun? I started with reading Nella’s Birth Story (as you suggested 🙂 and let’s just say I had one of those all-too-often moments with the husband – in the late evening after the boys are off dreaming – and he looks over at me and sees mem bawling like a big BIG baby… he rolls his eyes with a little smirky and goes back to watching Malto Mario.
The way you told your story was so raw and real. Thank you for sharing all of that. These kiddos are blessings aren’t they? They bless us… they. just. do.
Well I wanted to say Hi! Merry Christmas! & I’m loving your slippers 🙂
God Bless y’all, Sami Jo
Looking at Nella gives me such hope for my 21×3 girl!!! Thanks for the inspiration!
Merry, merry Christmas. I hope you have a Normal Rockwell kinda day!!
Merry Christmas to you and yours! I have not commented lately, but have been following. Greta ended up in the hospital shortly after Nella for pneumonia and constipation…those poor babies and mamas…all is better now and I am finally getting caught up on sleep. I saw how your PT had Nella standing against a wall so I have been trying that Greta and she loves it and has definitely gained strength to independently stand. I am really hoping for her to be walking by 18 months. One more sleep and then I am off for Christmas break. Can’t wait to make cookies and gingerbread houses, stay in jammies all day and not shower:) Took Mae on a date to Tangle too. Very cute and funny!
I haven’t been by here in far, far too long although I’ve had all of you in my thoughts. So thrilled to see how Nella has grown & is as beautiful as ever. Lainey is just a spoonful of sweetness. Beautiful, beautiful. Merry Christmas to you & your’s!
As always, BEAUTIFUL!
thanks for the reminder to drink life in… even the messes. 🙂
I am right with ya on the home week theme … and the unscripted beauty. I am climbing my laundry mountain, little by little … you know, in between Christmas programs and bundling and unbundling little ones who are anxious to play in the snow … oh how I love this time of year!
xoxo,
April
PS – I saw little nooks of your house I’ve never notced before … kinda fun!
Enjoy every single second! Merry Christmas!
I love Laineys HUGE smile in the pic of her holding her pop and popcorn!
I am leaving your blog on, just so I can listen to your music! Maybe I will start the Judy Garland song over and over again!
your life looks soooo perfect! looks like you have soo much money to play with! soooo jealous
Aw! I can’t believe she wasn’t ready for the theater. I took my little one (shes 2 1/2) to see Toy Story 3 and Tangled in the theater and she loves it and she got so excited both times.
Maybe next time?
I really don’t comment your blog enough, although i ready every post. You’re so inspiring. Reminding me that life is beautiful, no matter what happens. I need to look for the beauty not the negative.
Thank you for that.
Merry Christmas to you and yours, Kelle!
xo
-K
To BETH -oh Beth, I do so feel like I know you, after all this time of reading your comments here. I just LOVE what you wrote, how it is more like “the Griswolds..”. TOO funny. And i think many of us can relate! But it’s all good – the spirit of Christmas is the main thing, huh? Hope you and yours have a great Holiday. And POPPA RIK – as ALWAYS< I love your words. I love what you wrote in appreciation of single moms and moms who have to work extra. You have such a big heart, clearly. My mom was divorced when I was 15 and she raised us from then on, alone (there were 7 of us kids and the youngest was a baby.) God bless you, Rik! Love you..
Oh, Dunkin Donuts! I am not a coffee drinker but it is my fav hot chocolate!
My kids (ages 2 and 4) big Christmas gift was going to the Barney Live Show. 3rd row, center! Thought it would be the highlight of their year. Five minutes in, and all kids are clapping, smiling and dancing. All except mine. “I go home”, “scared”, “too noisy”. Not a lick of traffic on the way home for us! ha!
Jill B (Overland Park, KS)
Your home looks so cozy and inviting! Love your pretty tree!
So crazy. I took my almost three year old daughter to see her first movie and it was also Tangled. I didn’t care about all the stares I got as I photographed my little in front of the theater, in the lobby with her popcorn and sitting in the seat waiting for the movie to start. So funny you got some of the same shots. Awesome, I love it!!! Sorry Lainey love didn’t love it as much as my bug did. I think because my girl has never had popcorn or seen a movie she was shocked at the novelty of it all and didn’t care one bit about the scary parts. She did however sit in my lap the whole time…and as my leg fell asleep..I didn’t mind one little bit. It’s one of those moments I know I will remember, forever.
Does Nella not have to wear her glasses anymore? Haven’t seen them in awhile. Your girls are so beautiful.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!! So often when it snows I think of you…and how sometimes you miss this Michigan weather and I smile and try to send a little of that cold frosty goodness your way!!
Happy Holidays Hampton family and friends!
Hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas, Kelle! Enjoy – and thanks for all your wonderful posts in 2010! 🙂
Thank you for this. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the picturesque view I have of my and my husband’s lives together. We’ve been married over three years now, but I’m back in school, and he’ll probably be going back as well, and I keep wondering how our ‘real’ lives are going to be, and picturing all these things I want so badly. I thought the other day that I shouldn’t aim too high because I probably wouldn’t get there. But you know what, if I want something I’m going to work for it and try my hardest to make it, and if I don’t, at least I can say I tried. And I’ll still have my loving husband and a great life.
So, a bit more than just a picturesque Christmas, but I know you understand what I mean. So thank you for reinforcing me with your words, “If you want it, work hard to create it, but leave cushion for the unexpected and embrace everything outside of that “perfect” vision as good and meaningful parts of your story you would have never had the opportunity to know had you stuck to the script.”
Thanks. 🙂
Caitlin
my blog, away on.
Laurel,
Yes, Nella got a second opinion on the glasses and he said the prescription is small enough not to fight it right now (she swipes them off every time).
Emilie,
So sorry your baby ended up in the hospital. And Nella didn’t stand at first whe we put her against the wall…she slumped right down. Now, she loves it! Good luck!
ShelB,
Nice camera angles and an outlook that sees the good can make anything look great. There is always someone who has less than us, and always someone who has much much more. I count our blessings, but perfect is overated, and we are far from it.
KC,
I gather your quotes like water in the desert, Girl. xoxo
Merry Christmas! I LOVE those knitted mocs — where did you get them?
You remind me of this pretty cool Canadian singer FEIST. Check out 1234 or My Moon My Man on Utube. 🙂 Merry Christmas from a Canadian gal.
Looks so comfy and cozy and festive! Happy Holidays to you!
I don’t know if you know, but Patti Rice is doing a Ipad giveaway at babynumber10.blogspot.com She is trying to raise money to help a little girl with DS find an adoptive family before she is transfered to an institution. If you even just put one sentence at the bottom of one of your posts… & a link to her blog, she would likely have hundreds of visitors because of your huge readership. She is a small-time blogger – with WAAAAy less followers than you but she is doing a GOOD thing!! And she adores your blog and your girls. I don’t know if you even know her – but her daughter was born right around when Nella was born – kind of a kindred spirit! I know you’re busy but I thought I would ask. It would be a wonderful gift to see this little girl have a home soon. Giveaway ends Christmas eve so I know it’s kinda last minute. Just thought I would share. Thanks! (: danielle
Love the post. Had a ‘mama laughter” moment. Took my kiddo to see the pooh movie when she was 3. She did “okay” but really wasn’t ready. Not a quitter, we tackled Nemo next. We walked out 1/4 of the way through. I’m not sure why I was so determined for her to be movie-bound. She’ll be 11 in 3 weeks – seems like a blink ago.
Enjoy the days with your kiddo and those DVDs! 🙂