Christmas at Home.

A few months ago, my mom was diagnosed (again) with cancer. Her blood work had been off for a long time, and finally they were able to find something that they could actually point to and treat. She did a round of chemo for a month, but there was no change in her blood work, so she is now on week 3 of a different chemo drug. I'm thankful that she is taking the medication as well as expected, and that with the new medication her numbers are at least moving back towards normal again. She is always so strong and so positive. I'm sure she waivers like us all-I just haven't ever seen it.

One nice thing about being in Sioux Falls is seeing my family more often (though on the flip side, we do see Matt's family less frequently-boo!). And given my mom's treatments we decided to drive up Saturday after Thanksgiving and decorate for Christmas. Since we were working with 3 kids 5 and under and one tired Nana, the theme was definitely keep it simple. But, it was a fun and special time.

My favorite part is taking out all the old boxes that are still the same as when I was growing up. Verda was my grandma.

Here is Ella decorating the tree with a little help from Papa. Of course everyone wanted to put their ornament up high, but I think we got them fairly evenly dispersed.

Not too bad:)

Ella found some "snow" and immediately brought it to me to tie around her so she could be a snow princess. I love that she does this kind of stuff for the sheer joy of it-she's never seeking attention or anything else.

More decorating:

Don't worry-these came home with us.

Besides decorating the tree, we also put up Nana's snowman collection in the bay window-as few as some other odds and ends around the up stairs. Here the kids are prepping the window with some snowflakes.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any "after" shots.

That evening we were able to go out for dinner and catch up with a good friend of mine. It was a blessed day.

Also, notice Matt's not in any pictures? He spent most of the afternoon out hunting. Unfortunately it was very cold and windy and not many pheasants were flying around.