Christmas smorgasbord

I'm about to give you a full dose of our Christmas month of celebration...better known as Christmas smorgasbord. You know, kind of like when you have the most random meal ever known to man with leftover mashed potatoes, spaghetti, chicken noodle soup so that you can go one more night without cooking. Yea, just like that.

In an effort to not post Christmas pictures until February, I'm giving you a glutinous portion whether you're ready for it or not. Hope you've got elastic pants on and that you're in a Christmas mood because there's not room for any "Grinchiness" over here. Because when it comes to Christmas, we go full throttle.

We trimmed our tree Thanksgiving weekend. Yes, it took two days. But I'm pretty proud of the fact that it ONLY took two days. With the amount of Christmas we put out, hearing "I'm hungry" every couple of hours and nursing the baby every 3 hours, I'd say that's pretty darn good.

  I gotta say, Landry looks like she's gotta fit right in lovin' her some Christmas.

And I can't believe that the tree has been left alone this year. Well, I take that back. Nolan makes ornaments almost daily (out of the most random materials). I'm proud to say I'm embracing the fact that our tree isn't "showroom" ready but it's definitely a showroom of our children.

I absolutely love the movie Elf. I'm not sure if my favorite part of this picture is the fact that they're captivated watching Elf or that they're snuggling while they're watching it.

Next year, I have a feeling a certain Miss is going to have her hands all over that tree. And in case you're wondering how many ornaments a baby needs to commemorate her first Christmas....we're at three and still counting.

The house and tree weren't the only things decorated around here. Nope, Landry was equally trimmed. I'm pretty sure she has an outfit for the 12 days of Christmas. 

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We've had a lot of fun with Pickles, our elf. I see all these posts on Facebook and Pinterest with all these elaborate mischievous things that others have their elves up to. We hardly have time to move the darn thing. One night we even forgot and had to do some major covering. And, my boys are mischievous enough as it is...I don't need to be giving them any ideas. 

The elf is great but not as great as the big man in the red suit downtown. This was our second attempt to see him after seeing a line that was way too long and in the bitter cold. 

Waiting really was half the fun. I think the kids thought they were in Candyland.

 I'm so glad we waited. He beats any mall Santa any day. 

Although, Cam looked like he could have waited a little bit longer...

 

My favorite part of this picture is that Campbell is surely thinking, "I got my eye on you, Santa."

 

Landry was such a trooper even though she could hardly see with her little crocheted hat. The things we put our kids through for the cuteness factor.

Grandma and Granddad joined in on the Santa fun and like always, we discover it's a good thing that they're coming for backup until we keep working on fine tuning our zone defense now that we're outnumbered.

 Santa visit...check!

 

You know Santa has a lot on his plate and so we decided we better write him a letter just to make sure that he knew what the boys wanted. (And we had to get this down on paper...Christmas lists were changing way too much for this mama trying to get shopping done). 

Yeah, my baby is reading. We grow geniuses in our family.

And we definitely grow sweet big brothers...well to their sister, at least.

 

I'm amazed at Nolan's ability to write nearly all of his letter. He has come so far from last year. We only had to help him with a few words but he was deep in thought over that list. We have the boys narrow it down to three things because the wise men brought Jesus three gifts and he has so many other children to deliver to. The rest will be up to us or the grandparents. 

 

Campbell was able to draw what he wanted with a little help from his artistic older brother. 

 

Pickles was watching the whole time from an ornament in the tree. So it was really convenient that he could just take the letters with him to the North Pole on his way.

But my favorite moment after all the craziness of seeing Santa, wrapping presents, and shopping are the sweet moments like this that no present can even compare.

I sometimes feel that all this "Santa is watching you" and accidentally touching the elf that causes a meltdown about his magic being gone might land my kids in therapy. I really hope not. I want my kids to look back at Christmas knowing the true reason we celebrate it, that giving is better than receiving and that their mama loved her some Christmas and did her best to make sure that memories were made.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Obnoxious is the only word that could possibly describe me when it comes to Christmas. Oh yes, I'm one of those lunatics that starts listening to Christmas music when Thanksgiving hasn't even made its appearance. There's no doubt that I love Thanksgiving but there's not exactly a bounty of Thanksgiving songs out there on the radio.

My week off at Thanksgiving had me feeling like I was on speed. I was doing my best impression of the Tasmanian Devil. It was exhilarating getting so much accomplished with scrapbooking, finishing the playground, and painting. But decorating for Christmas takes a new level of energy. I'm so excited when I open the first box and then about half-way through it, I think to myself that it's entirely way too much work when we're usually the only ones that see it.

The best part was that Nolan really got into decorating the tree this year. Who cares if he hasn't exactly gotten down spacing out the ornaments and he puts them all on the same branch. I just love how when I unwrapped an ornament that I would hear a squeal followed by, "Oh, I remember that ornament! That one is my favorite!" I had this mom moment where I thought, "Oh my goodness, we're really making memories!"

Nolan actually stayed interested in decorating the tree at least 30 minutes. That's some good stamina for a 5 year old!

 Campbell was interested too. His attention span? Probably 3 minutes...tops.

Stockings were hung by the chimney with care. Target oh Target, why did you stop carrying these stockings? I'm still holding onto to hope that they'll go retro and start selling them again so we can get Campbell a matching one.

 

You remember so much about Christmas as a child. I wish to instill that same magic, that same love for all things good this time of year in my children. It's a lot of pressure!

So in the midst dealing with tangled lights, styrofoam, and sweat, my thoughts of "Why try?" are quickly answered when I see my childrens' faces. My 5 year old's face that already remembers ornaments from the year before, and I see my toddlers eyes light up in perfect synchronization when I turn on the Christmas tree lights. I look at their face and I simply say...THAT'S why.

Lights, Camera, Christmas!

We played it low key last year with decorations since Campbell was a baby, I had just gone back to work, and we went to Kentucky early for Christmas. Now that Nolan is 4, we decided to go full throttle with Christmas. I always get so excited getting ready to decorate. Then, in the midst of it, I suddenly remember how much work it is and wonder why I decided to get everything out again. It has taken double maybe even triple the amount of time it used to now with two little ones. Nolan's pretty easy but Campbell wants right in the middle of it, wants a snack or a nap so it took us 3 days at least to get Christmas up. Right now if you drive by our house, you would see our Christmas lights halfway hanging from our roof. We need to borrow a ladder from our friends and with the cold/wet weather we're only half way there. I'm sure the neighbors are talking about us.

We brought out a little snow village and you would have thought we just bought a ticket to the North Pole for Nolan. He is totally my son with his love for Christmas. It doesn't take much to get him excited. We'll drive by a house with a strand of lights in their shrubs and he'll scream like it's a winter wonderland. I decided this age is the best for Christmas! Stay tuned for some Santa stories...

I was chasing the boys around trying to get pictures of them "helping" decorate the tree. Campbell was SO not cooperative. Can you tell who's been on the naughty list this year?

look at that scowl!

Decorating

I am not one to have shopping parties but my friend's sister had one and I couldn't go so I decided to have a party myself! I just loved this stuff. It's called Upper Case Living and it's super easy. It's just a transfer. I wish I would have known about these before we spent hours painting the boys' rooms!

I love letters. I know it sounds crazy but I do. I love inspiring quotes, I love monograms, I love incorporating fun fonts in my scrapbooking and my boys' rooms too. I love making invitations and finding just right font. I'm such a nerd. Maybe it's the writing teacher coming out in me. So I decided to throw a party and here are a few items that I got for the house. I think they turned out really cute!