It's December 15th. Fo Realz!! T-minus 10 days til Mommy kisses Santa Claus. Not sure how that happened. Blame it on living in Minneapolis, actually loving winter, yet having NO SNOW! Blame it on the kids attending a Jewish school. Whatever it is, it's high time I attempt to overcome my mental roadblock and get in the spirit for one of my favorite holidays! Powering off the Hip-Hop now and loading the Ho-Ho-Holiday tunes.
Over the past couple years I've gradually adjusted what Christmas looks like at our house. Before kids I would deck our halls with all of my decorations. Now that we've got a few "free range children" (Marie, thank you for introducing me to that term - best descriptor ever), I have greatly edited what gets unpacked and placed around our house every December.
The thing I have missed most the past couple Christmases is the one and only collection I've ever had in my life - beautiful vintage glass tree ornaments that my mom got me interested in while I was still in High School. I miss unwrapping them and being reminded of the memories and meaning tied to each of them. They are too special to me that I fear they will break if I were to place them on our tree. I really need to get a small tree I can put up in mine and Joe's room so I can enjoy them and not have to worry about the kids thinking they are toys.
But what we're lacking in blown glass, we've easily made up for with felt, yarn, plastic, glue and glitter and grainy pictures of the kids in hand-made frames. Plus, I've got a new treasure started. Notice the treeskirt? It has 9 handprints on it. One of mine and Joe's, as well as one print for every Christmas that each kid has celebrated. Each year we add a handprint of each kid. Admittedly it was a challenge to get Wren's print for this year. I took a little liberty after initially tracing her hand to get it cut out of felt. It's darn cute, though. Max has wondered why there isn't a super tiny handprint from him (he was 11 months for his 1st christmas).
I've also found it entertaining to watch the unbreakable ornaments be placed on the tree. Max had fun finding just the right branch for many. For instance, he was sure to put the giraffe ornament in the zoo (lower right side), the bear stomping through a mound of snow (bottom of tree), and said i had placed the little bird feeder ornament in the wrong spot. "It needs to be close to the window so the birds can see it from outside and fly through the window to get to the bird food." Of course.
Our advent calendar. It isn't pretty, but the beauty of kids is that pretty doesn't matter as long as when they open the calendar for the day they learn that they get to open a special surprise, read a new book or have a treat. But for the days when the calendar says to donate a few of their toys to charity, it might help to have it be a bit more aesthetically pleasing.
Elf in the Shelf is just waiting for Papa Mark to arrive and the Jack & 7 to start flowing. Love Papa Mark & Jack.
Our advent calendar. It isn't pretty, but the beauty of kids is that pretty doesn't matter as long as when they open the calendar for the day they learn that they get to open a special surprise, read a new book or have a treat. But for the days when the calendar says to donate a few of their toys to charity, it might help to have it be a bit more aesthetically pleasing. We've been known to get a few days behind (not sure how; it's just pulling out a slip of paper, reading it and doing that act), resulting in an advent calendar mash-up and loads of Christmas fun (read: sugar) every couple days.
Elf on the Shelf. I'm finding that this tradition requires a nightly appointment reminder for me in order to remember to move him before the kids awake.
Elf in the Shelf is just waiting for Papa Mark to arrive and the Jack & 7 to start flowing. Love Papa Mark & Jack. 
Elf on the Couch. Love my Elf on the Couch.
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