3 More Sleeps!

It's hard to believe there are only 3 more sleeps until our Christmas celebrations begin! Christmas Eve we will be celebrating with my husband's family. Christmas Day we are having our very first Christmas on our own - although we will be joining friends/neighbors of ours for supper. Boxing Day is with my dad and his family, and the 27th with my mom and siblings. It's going to be a crazy few days, but I am very much looking forward to it!

I do, however, feel like I have a huge to-do list in the next few days to prepare. I was feeling very ready for Christmas - and then my kids DEVOURED half of the baking I've already done. So, really, all I need to do is more baking....but somehow I haven't been able to find the energy for it yet. Oh, and I also have to buy Jared's stocking stuffers....guess I better get on that one!

Here's hoping I get all the mixing, rolling, cutting, and icing done that I need to in the next few days! If I'm MIA for a while it's because I've drowned in a vat of icing and sprinkles.

The Inner Workings of a 3 Year Old Mind

{image found here}

 Yesterday evening Xavier was tearing around the 'circle' of our living room, toy room, and the hallway - pretending he was in a race, of course - when he trips over his fire truck and stubs his toe. He promptly decides that his fire truck needs a time out, so he marches it over to the stairs, sets it down, gets a very stern look on his face, and while pointing at the truck, tells it, "Now you stay there!" He proceeds to tell me that his fire truck is in time out and has to stay on the stairs - just in case I didn't hear him say so a moment earlier.

What a kid! Even when I've had a rotten day, he knows how to cheer me up, often without even realizing it!

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

So I had every good intention of posting these pictures a couple weeks ago after we were finished setting up the tree....but I got busy with the kids and shopping and now Shaela is under the weather and I've been uber tired the last few days. So updating the blog hasn't really crossed my mind. I have a few free moments this afternoon though - I really should be folding laundry, but I'm procrastinating - so here are a few pictures of our tree.

 

We don't own a tree topper at all - we've looked every year since we got married, but we've never been able to find one we like. We did, however, receive these little angels as a gift our first Christmas that we were married, so they have served as our tree topper ever since. Some day I do hope to find an actual star or angel for the top - but for now, these do the job just fine.

I also took a few more creative shots of the lights and ornaments.

 

I could lay under the tree and stare up at the lights all night. I love the glow they give off and they remind me of Christmas as a little girl. I think it was my favorite holiday and probably still is - it's so cozy and warm (well, inside!) and you get to visit with family and friends that you don't get to see very often. That's my favorite part. That and all the yummy Christmas cookies!

Getting Excited

Well, with a bit of snow on the ground, it's finally starting to look and feel a little bit more like Christmas is coming and I'm getting very excited for it! I think it's one of my favorite holidays, minus the freezing cold weather. That part I could do without! :P

I do, however, LOVE all the pretty lights up everywhere and getting to spend lots of time with family. Plus all the good food. Now that I have kids, I enjoy watching them open up gifts as well - don't get me wrong, I enjoy getting new things as well, but for me, the gifts aren't really all that important. I also love Christmas music - now that I no longer work in a mall that is! I did retail throughout high school, and I tell ya, working almost every day and having to listen to Christmas songs for hours at a time really kills your holiday spirit! But not anymore, thankfully. :)

Anyway....our Christmas shopping was finished a few days ago and I have all the presents wrapped and safely stashed in the basement where the kids can't get them. And as I mentioned, we finally have a bit of snow, so now I'm itching to put up some Christmas decorations. Namely, our tree. I spent the better part of the afternoon today rearranging furniture to make room for it. I really like rearranging furniture. It drives Jared nuts, but I can't stand things staying the same in a room for too long. I get bored with it and want to mix things up a bit, so I'll spend hours thinking about how to make different furniture arrangements work. Unfortunately, our house isn't that large, so there are only so many things I can do in this place...but I enjoy the challenge of figuring it out!

This is how my afternoon went: I had to figure out how to move things around in the toy room to make space for our tree in the corner. I had to move the bookshelf into the living room, rearrange the change table/desk and then slide the treadmill over. I also decided that once the bookshelf was in the living room that maybe the furniture in here should be rearranged. I pulled it all out, took out all the toys from underneath them and vacuumed the floor. And after moving everything around, decided it worked better the way it was so I moved it all back again. :P I did make a few minor changes, but the furniture itself is in the same spot as before. It's a little large for the room (we bought it before we moved in), so there are a very select number of ways to make it work in here.

All that to say, I am very excited for tomorrow afternoon when we'll be able to set up the tree and decorate it together. It makes me happy to watch the twinkling lights on it in the evenings....I just hope the kids will leave it alone once it's up!

Something To Look Forward To

So I realize it's been a while since I've posted anything - but I feel like I have nothing exciting to share and I hate just rambling on about nothing. However, I am feeling kind of bored this morning and writing about it makes me feel slightly more productive. :P It's not that nothing has been happening lately - but it's nothing to write home about. It's been the usual laundry and dishes, and chasing after the kids. Changing diapers and kissing owies. Officially switching our daughter into Size 2 clothes (she's getting so big!). Making supper and doing even more dishes. Changing more diapers and reading stories and getting glasses of water before bed. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy it all! But I am excited for when I can actually get out of the house with the kids during the day and do FUN things with them!

You see, running a daycare has me housebound during the day. Our car can't fit any more than the two carseats for our own children, which means I can't go on any sort of field trips with the kids - other than short walks to the park. I get horribly motion sick on the bus, so that isn't an option at all. And I long for the days when we can go to the Children's Museum, or to the Zoo, or to the indoor park at the mall on cold days. Anything to get them out of the house and playing with new things. They get so bored with the same old toys all the time - and I get sick of sitting around the house with them all day. Colouring and puzzles and reading stories can only entertain them for so long!

I am also looking forward to being able to grocery shop in the middle of the afternoon. To run errands before 6 o'clock at night! To go to Mom's group again and interact with other adults during the day! There have definitely been a lot of perks to working at home, the main one being at home with my kids all day - but after two and a half years, I am ready to say good-bye to my daycare kids and just be a stay at home mom. Only 12 more days to go (working days, that is) and I will be finished. It's bittersweet, because I have had a lot of fun watching the kids I've had grow up and learn and discover new things while at my house. But I am definitely looking forward to sleeping in again and not having to work 10 hour days!

January 1st, you are definitely something to look forward to!