The Most Wonderful Time of the Year…Again!

Here we are at literally my favorite time of the year, although it seems we were just here! I’m not complaining that the blissful holiday season has arrived again, only that life seems to be moving at such a rapid pace! If you’re like our family, we repeatedly say, “after X-Y-and Z occurs, things will slow down”, only to add more wonderful things and events to our calendar and well… here we are again… another trip around the sun… making more Christmas memories. I am confident that this cycle will repeat itself many times as my children grow, so it means even more for us now to be selective in our activities, the investments of and commitments for our time, and to intentionally carve out quality moments to make memories and spend time together.

The most blissful days that I can conjure in my head include a view much like I see right now. The twinkling lights of the Christmas tree against the backdrop of a roaring, crackling fire, a superb blanket, a hot cup of tea, and family by my side. The gray winter skies actually bring my soul a sort of peacefulness and I’m totally fine with the earlier winter darkness as it often brings a slower pace to our evenings. It’s just a time of year that I wish would linger longer, and the feeling of anticipation and holiday excitement to remain. I’m not one to join in on the commercial hustle and bustle, you’ll most likely find us in our jammies watching Christmas movies and not hating it.

The Hall kids are busy growing, learning, and taking on the world. They are 3 and 5-years-old going on grown. We’re mostly busy packing in all the fun that our days can hold. I am so confident and in love with our homeschool decision for our children. Both Addisyn and Josiah are flourishing in their skills, with our largest accomplishment in Addisyn’s ability to read independently. She’s had major advances in both her literacy and math skills. Josiah stays right with us, wanting so badly to keep up with his sister. Each day we have Bible/History, Language Arts, Math, Science, and some type of arts/crafts. Our focus is largely on learning through real life experiences. This combined with gymnastics, dance, sports classes, and spending much time in free play and outside makes for busy and rewarding days for both kiddos. It is incredibly amazing to watch them grow, learn, work hard, overcome, and succeed.

How do you manage your children’s activities? Is your family constantly on the go, or the opposite? Our children were very scheduled as infants and we find that even as they get older and can tolerate more variance, they absolutely crave a schedule and enjoy knowing what their days will look like. We have tried not to over-schedule our kids at such young ages, because as they grow, I am sure the schedule will fill up enough on its own. We commit to The Little Gym for both of our children because we love the opportunities for social interactions, the ability to learn and practice social skills, and the opportunity for them to acquire patience, obedience, and self-control while applying themselves physically to learn a skill/talent. This brings a good balance for our family to commit to this one activity for both of our children and provide more freedom for the rest of our schedule. How does your own family strike a balance for this? I would love to hear!

May the Christmas season be filled with twinkling lights, hot cocoa, and whatever level of hustle and bustle that you enjoy! Merry Christmas!