December So Far

Well friends I didn't mean to just disappear over Thanksgiving.  We had a nice relaxed day at my parents and life has been a blur of activity since then.  December is super busy, as I am sure it is for many of you too!  Here's a little bit of a catch up on what we've been doing.

Our seven year old went to spend a couple of nights at my Mother-In-Law's after Thanksgiving so we had an unusually quiet weekend, with just the two year old for most of it.  We didn't do too much Black Friday shopping, although I did so some online.  The highlight for LB was going to a train show with Daddy.

Christmas seemed to come a little early when my three grab bags from Lawn Fawn showed up.  I'd never bought a grab bag before, because I don't like to spend money without knowing what I am getting, but these were pretty inexpensive compared to how much Lawn Fawn stuff normally is and I always like their embellishments so I took the plunge with these.

We watched old holiday favorites, it doesn't seem like Christmas without seeing the Charlie Brown special at least once.

Christmas crafts are underway.  Instead of some of the more elaborate or from scratch ones I had wanted to do, my kiddo begged to get' unpainted ceramic ornaments from the craft store.  I was a little let down but she thought it was big excitement to pick out her own designs.  I've decided that it's more important to make sure her Christmas wishes were incorporated into our holiday crafts than forcing mine on her.

We all went to my two year old's playgroup and preschool family night at school.  It was really nicely done with several crafts, play activities, and the required cookie decorating.

We did St. Nicholas for the second year in a row and are making it part of our family traditions.  I need a little down time between Thanksgiving and the begin of Christmas crazies.  So we've been talking with the kids about how St. Nicholas starts off the season with his visit on the sixth.  They are both on board, since they think leaving out their shoes for an extra gift is pretty cool. 

Our oldest is supposed to make sure she does a good deed and helps someone every day the following week in honor of St. Nicholas too.  Plus St. Nicholas is where Santa Claus came from so I stress that St. Nicholas really lived and this has seemed to put all the is Santa Claus real questions to bed for at least this year.  She's seven so I don't know how much longer the magic will real for her but I'm hoping to make it last as long as possible.

After much resistance we finally had Magic Elves show up at the house, also with St. Nicholas so I don't have quite as many days to figure out where to put them.  They've been a big hit and E loves reading the little letters and jokes they leave each day so it's a really fun tradition to have added to our family.

The little guy helped decorate the tree for the first time.  He has been super good with the tree so far, but we're not that far into December so I hope things stay that way.  He loves the lights and ornaments so I know he's itching to touch them again! 

We used to put up the tree the weekend right after Thanksgiving but again, I'm way exhausted with a toddler so that didn't happen until last Saturday.  I put out a much edited version of our holiday decorations, basically as much as would fit in any up and out of the way locations.  My collection of snow globes made it out and up on the mantle.

I don't bake, like at all.  I'm also diabetic so I never had much motivation to learn how to bake.  Brad is good about baking pretty often things like brownies and that sort of thing so the kids get plenty of treats.  But a big holiday bake-a-thon is out either of our abilities.  So E can still get her bake on we usually go and join in with my Mom when she bakes with her sisters.  This year they got a good chunk done and E got to decorate sugar cookies so that's one more annual holiday event to check off!

This week I also met a friend for lunch one day, had a Brownie meeting, went to an ornament exchange with my sororities alum group, and a mom's night out with my MOPS group.  All this and it's only the end of the first week of December!  How has your month gone so far?