Milspouse Holiday Blog Swap

Riding the Roller Coaster is at it again.

She has once again organized an amazing

blog swap between some milspouses

to exchange our posts on one anothers blogs

about the holiday season.

You can read my post HERE
where I was featured over at 

Blue Star Families.

I'd like to thank  Molly

and

the rest of the Blue Star Families crew
for having me over for a very special visit today.

I was lucky enough to host

Trying our Best

on my blog today.  

She is such a sweet Marine wife who is a  mom to three very energetic little boys {6, 5, & 2yrs old} who are as adorable as they are mischievous, which is nice because it keeps her from listing them on ebay.  She's been married for 9 years to a fantastic guy who just happens to be a Marine aviator. She holds down the fort which means volunteering at school, feeding the little ones, wiping butts, and folding laundry while he flies around the world for Uncle Sam.

Here are her boys.

They don't look mischievous, do they?

I just love brotherly love.

{...and here is The Mrs. post...}

It's that time of the year.....

So far today I've baked 2 dozen cookies, a tray of toffee, assisted with a page of related math facts, tried to figure out if the animals in a word problem picture were in fact lioness or cubs {crucial to the problem}, plunged the toilet because someone thought perhaps a matchbox car was flush able {in case your wondering, no no its not}, picked one kid up from school early because of asthma, manned the nebulizer 3x and as I've written this post I've broken up two fights.

And know what I have to say about the holidays.... they rock. Except the fighting, that sucks no matter what time of year.

But really they do rock. Especially holidays as a mom.
Now, holidays as a kid were a heck of a lot cheaper, less stressful, and the holiday loot was a tad more plentiful.

After all, under the tree is one lone gift for me, from the santa secret shop at school, and as any mother knows, what comes from the secret shop is a total unknown.

But you know what?

I'll take my $2 candle that smells like some sort of weird fragrance ANY day over the cool toys I got as a kid, because my kid is the one giving it to me. Now, my parents put a ton of thought into their gifts too, but its not the same. The look in my little boy's eyes as he waits for me to unwrap it, the thought and love he put into picking out just the right present, makes it the most exquisitely foul smelling candle I've ever been gifted.

The holidays as a mom are not for the faint of heart, in fact after watching my husband train and run marathons its really much the same. You must pace yourself, you've got to have the stamina to go the whole 4 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. You have to be ready for the inevitable 45 minute debate on why we aren't Jewish and don't celebrate Hanukkah. No matter how tired you are, you absolutely can't leave Elfie, our Elf on the Shelf in the same place two days in a row.

But you are the one bringing the magic to your little ones. How awesome is that?!

Awesome. Scratch that, wicked awesome.

When they see the presents wrapped and decorated under the tree, who did that? You.

When they see the presents wrapped and decorated under the tree, who did that? You.

When giggle in the morning wondering how elfie got from the blades of the ceiling fan {our elf is a think outside the box kinda guy} to the top of the Christmas tree, who brought them that joy? You.

When they hear the jingle bells of Santa's sled on Christmas night, who made sure to wake up and jingle bells? You.

So as you run the holiday marathon, baking cookies for all the nice folks at your kids school, trying to remember to do something nice for your neighbor, sifting thru the holiday photo to find just one without someone picking their nose, remember, we are enduring the madness for a reason, the second reason for the season.....our kids.

It was so great getting to know

The Mrs.

a little bit better!

Remember to move Elfie tonight.

Don't forget to head over to

Riding the Roller Coaster

to see who else linked up with our blog swap.