What is your favorite holiday and why?

Hi everyone!! I'm so happy to have you here today. It's a great day for me, I finally finished that stupid Ecology paper. It only took me three weeks to complete (she said with heavy sarcasm).

So, how was your weekend? We had a birthday party to attend this weekend. It was one of Caleb's close friend's party and it was had at the trampoline park. If you ever want to exhaust your children, just let them run free at a trampoline park. I wonder why they never had places like this when I was growing up.....

Anyhoo, let's talk about me!! Isn't that some sort of Toby Keith song? I love doing posts like these, LOL. But seriously, I love giving you glimpses into this madness of a mind I have. I like showing off my family and our life, so that's somewhat of today's post is.

I was reading a lifestyle blog not too long ago and there was a list of 101 things to blog about. One of them was "What is your favorite holiday and why?"

Here's where the madness comes in....I can't name just one favorite holiday. It's not that simple for me. I have reasons why I love many of the holidays. So, I thought I'd showcase the ones I love here. I hope you enjoy.

Let's start out with New Years Eve / New Years Day:

We aren't the big party goers......anymore. I completed a good portion of my partying days while I was still in high school. That's a whole other post in itself, that I am not quite sure I want to expose yet. So, fast forward 20 something years later.....for New Year's Eve, the majority of the time we go out to my best friend, Crystal and her husband Brian's house and we play pool, ride the UTV, play cornhole and just hang out with them and a bunch of their neighbors. They are a fun group of people!!

They live way out in the country so we are able to light bon fires and do fireworks.....my favorite thing to do is to ride around in the UTV through all the the wooded areas on their land. We really have a wonderful time with them. This is not the only time we go to their house, but this is the time that we stay extra later and have a little extra fun.

New Years Day is when the new calendars come in!!!! Fun fact: I LOVE NEW CALENDARS!! But that's the only reason I like New Year's Day. :)

So, there's January. Now on to February's holiday. How can I not love Valentines Day? The hubs and I have been married 16 years just this past valentines.

Most people joke and say that I chose that date because I didn't want Brad to forget our anniversary....but in reality, NO ONE forgets our wedding. Many of the people who attended our wedding have no clue when they got married, but they do remember ours. :) I have this little old lady from church and she still comes up to me and tells me how much fun she had at our wedding. I'm pretty sure it was the party of the year in 2003.

I don't care much for St. Patricks day. I am not Irish, I don't like pinching people for not wearing green and so we aren't going to get into that holiday. In fact I never remember when it actually is.

Easter!!! This usually comes in April. I used to not care for Easter, but we started having this family gathering with family and friends at our home and I have now just fell in love with the holiday. It's a lot of work, because our families are so big, but its a lot of fun to have everyone over. I finally felt like a grown up after I started hosting a holiday at my house...is that strange? Well, it sounds strange to say.

Another fun fact: Caleb loves having people over to his house for the holidays. He does get a little nervous having 10 kids playing with all of his toys, but he still loves them all to be at our home.

July 4th...this one is truly special to me. You see, the year Caleb was born (July 12, 2010) I was in the hospital just waiting to have him on the 4th of July. I remember going out on the glass bridge of the hospital that night and standing with Brad, watching the fireworks go off at the North Texas College campus. It was a difficult holiday because I had been in the hospital since June 25th by then...but I knew it wouldn't be long until Caleb was in my arms.

And of course my little bundle of joy came on the 12th of July. Words can't come close to describing how much love I have for this little ball of fire in my life. And I ALWAYS take a trip down memory lane when Caleb's birthday rolls around.

So, love me some July!! October....now this is where this post get tough.... Halloween used to be my favorite holiday. Now that I have Caleb, I really love so many more of the holidays.

But if I was to pick just one, I'd say the month of October. I know, I know, I've got some 'splaining to do..

Ok, so I love Halloween....its one of the more affordable holidays and you can buy like 10 bags of Snickers at once and no one will look at you funny in the store. I love trick or treating as a kid. I would always go in my neighborhood with my best friend, Amber, each year. I love taking Caleb out just as much!!

So, why do I love the month so much? Well, it starts to cool off here in Texas....and that is one huge lifesaver. It's the perfect weather for camping here in Texas, I love the fall clothing that comes out in October, it's pumpkin spice colored and flavored everything as well. I love Halloween, as we just discussed, but one of the best things about October is because it's Breast Cancer Awareness month. We have had family members suffer from breast cancer and I support anything I can for this cause. I love how companies will take everything and splash it with the color pink and use the proceeds towards cancer treatments and research.

Pumpkin spice, cool weather, bags of snickers, camping, pink stuff, and helping special causes. October is my month!!!!

Thanksgiving!!

Really?! Who doesn't like to stuff their bellies to the brim one day a year? Um, I do...

Thanksgiving will always hold a special place in my heart that stems from my childhood. I would always wake up excited because I knew my grandparents would make the 2 hour drive (with their camper in tow) and arrive bright and early Thanksgiving morning. Then they'd stay the night and we'd stay up with them playing Wahoo (a game from my childhood, played like Chinese Checkers). It was when I knew that when i grew up I'd also have a holiday at my house where my children's grandparents would come over....(for us that is Easter).

Christmas: Oddly enough, I never cared for Christmas growing up. There always seemed to be tension in the house before and on Christmas Eve...it would always end by Christmas morning, but I grew to dislike the holiday. It wasn't any better when I moved out. It almost got worse. On Christmas Eve (after working half a day) Brad and I would go to one grandparent's house, then to my mom's and then to Brad's family's home and get home sometime after midnight and have to wake up early to visit two more grandparents houses. We just barely had enough time for our own Christmas Eve together.

HOWEVER, Brad knew my dislike for Christmas Eve, and he planned a very special Christmas Eve in 2001 when he proposed, with just the two of us at home....of course that happiness was short lived because we had to rush off to the next family's house.

While the proposal was the most special Christmas Eve I have ever had, after Caleb came along, our holiday had a purpose to it. Christmas can be stressful financially for us....we don't have a ton of money to spend, but enough to make it special and filled with magic. Of course this really started to become easier when started saving money for Christmas in January....that's the key to doing it right, start saving early!

So, anyways, now that Caleb is here, we don't just celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...nope, we start things off the day after Thanksgiving. This is what I call a "mommy and me" day. Brad always has to work the day after, and since he doesn't like the tree decorating and such, Caleb and I use this day to do just that.

We string popcorn, bake cookies, have peppermint hot chocolate and decorate the tree. We finally plop on the couch and watch tons of Christmas cartoons. Christmas Eve is celebrated at our home with JUST Brad, Caleb and myself.

We go ice skating with my BFF and her son, we go look at Christmas lights and go to the live nativity. And of course we wrap it all up with Santa on Christmas day. We do go and visit family and all, but we have paired it down a bit. One year we will go to Thanksgiving and one side of the family and then Christmas on the other side. Then the next year we switch. It's a lot less stressful for us and saving early makes it financially a bit easier, and the fact that we do things together as a family takes away all the attention that Santa and Christmas Eve gets. So I think we have finally figured out how to do Christmas the right way.....at least for us that is. :)

Well, that's all I have for today. I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into my world. I will see you all again really soon. Until next time, take care.

-Kim