This year, I have been mostly jolly and embracing the season. I do love Christmas time so much and there really isn't any reason to be Grinchy. I've even had some crazy things to deal with in the past few months that have caused great stress, but nothing has made me happier than the arrival of the 'most wonderful time of the year'. We have been doing a lot of fun things this season.
First, decorating before Thanksgiving was fun because I feel like I extended the too-short season. I know a lot of people frown upon this, but Thanksgiving just isn't that big of a deal to me. I mean, shouldn't we be thankful every day and don't we spend plenty of other days with our families throughout the year? Also, we host Thanksgiving at our house and then rarely see visitors again until after the new year. I wanted my family to see all of my Christmas decorations, so putting them up before Thanksgiving made sense to me.
I did at least wait until...oh...Thanksgiving night to put my tree up :) I was so excited about my artificial tree this year!! My husband has never had a fake tree in his life and is very much in denial about our not-so-real tree. I really wanted a fake one because I can put it up whenever I want to and not have to worry if it will die before Chrismtas gets here, it doesn't need watered, doesn't shed, shouldn't cause a fire, and is pre-lit -- saving so much time of unraveling lights and getting them on just right. Rylee did most of the tree decorating and we very quickly learned that we had to put all of the ornaments on the top half of the tree where little boy hands can't reach them.
We attended our 2nd annual Disney on Ice show with my family. This year we had really awesome seats where we were up close to the characters and had bubbles float down on us during "Under the Sea". The kids loved that part!! I hope we are able to continue this tradition for a long time...it's even fun for adults!
A new holiday show (well, new to me) I got to attend was The Blenders Christmas concert at the Civic Center. My dad invited me and I had no idea who The Blenders were, but went anyway because I love Christmas music. I enjoyed the group so much that I plan to make that a holiday tradition as well. The group celebrated their 25th anniversary this year and have a holiday show in Des Moines each year.
One my other favorite holiday things we did was take Rylee to ride the Christmas train at the mall (her request) and then drive around looking at lights. We didn't make it over to the Jolly Holiday Lights (yet), but covered a lot of ground looking for that one awesome light display. I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed in people's displays.....I swear when I was a kid there were awesome lights in nearly every neighborhood!
This past weekend while visiting my husband's family, we went to their local fire station to see Santa. When I learned we would be doing this I thought, "oh great, my kids don't like Santa, this will be a disaster." It turned out to be fun though. Santa came into the station on a fire truck and he sang a Christmas carol (with the help of the kids) to break the ice a little bit. They then had some coloring activities and milk and cookies for everyone while we waited to see Santa. I had zero plans of making my kids visit with Santa, but my husband thought we should. He took them over to Santa, and Rylee got as close as she was willing to get. Santa was amazing and told her it was completely okay to be scared of him and he talked so calmly to her that she did get a few words out to him.....the only thing I heard her say was, "Wyatt has been naughty" :)
Taking the kids to see Santa just isn't something that will ever be on my "must do" list (along with the Easter Bunny), unless they specifically ask to. I don't remember ever being excited to see him, and to be honest I'm still not. As my husband reminds me all the time, "it's not about me"...and I know that, but unless my child(ren) really want to see Santa, it's just one of those things I don't think we need to cram into our holiday schedule. I much prefer having my kids write Santa a letter, because then I can see what they want. Also, I don't have to worry about Santa making any promises I can't fulfill. This fire station Santa asked Rylee if she would like a new coloring book....which is not something she is getting. Luckily, he also mentioned Frozen, which happens to be the theme of every single gift she is getting. I didn't even realize until I was wrapping all the gifts that EVERY single thing, including her stocking stuffers, is Frozen. What was I thinking??
Yesterday we took part in another fun holiday activity as we celebrated the season with our playgroup friends. We had a nice lunch and then the kids all got to open a present and attempted to sing a Christmas song together. We (the moms) laughed about how fun it would be to let the kids "steal" gifts from each other like the common gift exchange game. I imagine all of us moms slipping out the backdoor while the kids duked it out.
Last night we had friends over to help decorate cut-out cookies that Rylee and I made the day before. We did this with friends last year too and I have decided it's much more fun that way!
On Saturday we will celebrate the holiday with my family. This is a little early this year as we usually get together on Christmas Eve, but had to rearrange this due to travel by some. I'm looking forward to our celebration as I do every year. My aunt has been hosting since I was a child and there are so many decorations in her house that remind me of my childhood Christmases and make the holiday that much more magical for me!
Even more than Saturday's celebration, I am looking very forward to Christmas Eve night as we read Christmas books and set out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. This is when the real magic of Christmas comes to life, at least as I remember it as a kid. I swear I saw Rudolph's red nose high in the sky that night every year too...maybe we will look out all of the windows before bed and see if we see anything magical. I probably won't sleep much that night, in anticipation for Rylee's excitement in the morning when she sees that Santa was in our home and left presents for she and her brother. I just hope Mr. Santa doesn't forget to fill my stocking so Rylee doesn't wonder why Mommy is the only one with an empty stocking.
After being in such a jolly holiday spirit this year, I too agree with Rylee that the Grinch is scary and I hope he never comes back disguised as me again! (although I wouldn't mind if he captures our Elf on the Shelf next year so she can't make it back to our house....did I just say that??).
I hope you all have been full of Christmas CHEER this season and are making the most of this magical time of year.
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