A Perfectly Imperfect Christmas...

One of my favorite things during the holidays is to receive cards.

I love seeing and hearing from people I may not otherwise have constant contact with 

throughout the year.

This year I received one special card from my younger 

(yet apparently wiser beyond her years) sister. 

Inside she hand-wrote the following quote:

"There is no better time than now, this very Christmas season, for us to rededicate ourselves to the principles taught by Jesus Christ.  Let it be a time that lights the eyes of children and puts laughter on their lips.  Let it be a time for lifting the lives of those who live in loneliness... let it be a time of forgetting self and finding time for others.  Let it be a time for discarding the meaningless and for stressing true values.  Let it be a time of peace because we have found peace..."

- Thomas S. Monson

The timing of this quote could not be more fitting.  

You see I have recently found myself missing from this holidays season.  

I have been "here", and yet not here at all?!

Instead of being present during the moments that I should be treasuring as they are happening,

I have been focused on trying to document them "perfectly".

Is that even possible???

Not with a toddler, 

a husband that leaves 3 days after Christmas for 2.5 months to work overseas,

two dogs 

and 

three chickens.

Hence the "perfectly" imperfect...

... a Little Lilah enamored by lights, 

a patient Papa Bear left to untangle,  

a super-pokey (dying) tree, 

a clumsy toddler adept at dropping things 

and 

a tree with only 11 sentimental ornaments hung this year.

A "Garlick Christmas" that I wouldn't want any other way!

And so if I am "missing" over the next few days,

or if posts seem slightly imperfect,

just know that I am busy being ever "present" 

for my sweet little family this Christmas.