Let the Games Begin!

Confession: I’m more than slightly obsessed with the Christmas season. From the warm and fuzzies to the hot chocolate and parties and scarves (I love me a good scarf), it really is the most wonderful time of the year. But it ends way too soon every. single. year. My mom normally cries on Christmas night because “everything we’ve worked toward is over,” and while I used to think she was one fry short of a Happy Meal, I kinda get it now. Especially since I have kids; this time of the year takes on a whole new meaning.

I’ve made it my goal to celebrate a little each day. With help from my sidekick, Pinterest, we are making the 25 days of Christmas happen!

December 1: We had a Christmas photo shoot with a few friends. Ella was a project because she’s going through the I-want-back-in-your-uterus phase, but at the end of the day, I had this:

This is one of the few photos I have with my daughter. Sad, isn’t it? I wasn’t supposed to be in any of the pictures that day; I barely had any make-up on and I hated my sweater, but you know what? None of that mattered when I saw this. It really captures the happy, don’t ya think? And when she’s rolling her eyes and shooting off at the mouth in a few years, I’ll look back at this photo and smile. And then cry because I’ll remember thinking this was the difficult stage. Silly, silly Mommy.

December 2: The kids unwrapped a new book and we read it together before bedtime. Adorable (Dollar Store) pop-up book, and Ella didn’t even mangle or eat it. Score!

December 3: We wrote our letters to Santa! There are a few different sites that allow kids to e-mail or send a letter via snail-mail to Santa, but this one is my favorite. He’ll even write back! Brady is thrilled with the idea of getting mail. And I like any kind of mail that doesn’t want my money.

December 4: SANTA! I KNOW HIM! You’ll be treated to a slew of random quotes from the movie Elf for the remainder of this month. That’s fair warning. Anyway, we paid a visit to our mall Santa today. He is a lovely old man with patience that I will never, ever have. I enjoyed him. Brady enjoyed him. The other boys and girls enjoyed him. Ella did not:

I like how Brady’s nose is wrinkled ever so slightly as if he’s saying, “Sorry, guys, she does this a lot.” I warned the “elves” that this would happen and they should snap the shot quickly. Please note Santa’s death grip on the girl’s leg.

I haven’t decided how we’ll celebrate the 5th day of Christmas yet, but if I were a betting woman, I would bet that it will NOT be by way of my singing. My son is so sensitive that Rudolph (the song AND movie) makes him cry, and when I tried to hit all of the notes in my favorite Christmas tune, “Carol of the Bells,” he actually asked me to stop. Ella didn’t seem to mind, though. She yelled, “NO! NO! NO!” which I’m certain means “Ho! Ho! Ho!”