Simply Stephanie: HartfordChristmas.

Christmas in the Hartford house is busy. It is a wonderful time spent with a lot of family, over great meals, but it is busy. This year we had five Christmas's over the course of a week. This made it feel rushed, made my vacation from work seem almost non-existent and now has made us take a look at our apartment, at the mess and the haphazardness of boxes and gifts and wonder slightly was it worth it.

To be honest, I would love a little less. I love my family and I love spending time with them however, once you throw in friends and new years and my birthday, the stress starts to add up. I feel like their is no time to enjoy it. That going from house to house and big meal to big meal, there is not time to eat left overs or appreciate the time together.

Don't get me wrong, I feel extremely blessed to have so much family close and I am thrilled to be able to spend time with them and love them. But as I head back to work today, I cannot help but feel exhausted. And then I think, its just the husband and I. Imagine all of this with our own little one. So then that makes me think again, that by the time we have a child I know things will need to be different. That I will not want to be going a million miles an hour and visiting everyone under the sun. I will want to be starting family traditions and spending quality time together.

So with that being said, for now I am thankful for the craziness that the holidays bring. I am thankful that we have people to spend our time with and to share with and I know that it will not last for forever.

Check out the pictures, its funny to see the quality change as I received an awesome camera from my mom for Christmas. So hopefully the photo quality on the blog will now improve as well, no promises.