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. 

 ****

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.

Oh Sugar!

There have been years that the second Black Friday hits, it's mayhem. We're shopping, baking, crafting, wrapping, seeing Santa and squeezing more things into a weekend than there are hours.

And every year I tell myself that I'm not going to do that to myself again the next year...and then I tell myself the same thing again the next year. Do we see a pattern?

Some things I think are fun, others are no where near the fun meter but off the charts on the beat down meter. One of those things that I absolutely love though and make sure we fit in, is our cookie baking. I remember cooking with my mom growing up and how it was so hard to resist the urge to eat the cookies right from the oven.  The key was waiting until they were iced and the icing is what made them so soft.

Getting dressed for the part is half the fun. Who cares if that hat hasn't fit either one of them since they were 2. We grow ginormous heads in this family, thank you very much.

There were messes made and cookie cutting extremes so much so that you couldn't tell if you were eating a stocking or a tree...but c'mon, does it even really matter?

The attention span needed for cookies is pretty overwhelming for a three year old, but he was an awesome sport. He knew that good things come to those who wait.

Having  my mother-in-love in town to help this year was an extra special treat and quite the lifesaver. It's amazing that it took 5 adults to wrangle three kids, keep the house from burning down and photograph the entire event. It takes a village, right?

My parents came over as well and my mom is the most prepared cookie maker there is and does have the best sugar cookie recipe known to man.

 

The sugar rush was definitely evident when nap times were dismissed. It was so much fun to see them concentrate so intently on each little cookie as if it was a masterpiece. The sprinkles were mountains on top and I had to shake them off as I would glitter but there was some serious love put into those cookies. 

I might regret this baking session in January when we visit the dentist.

But for now, there are absolutely no regrets.

Merry Mail

I can't believe that I didn't put our "official" 2011 card on my last post. Ugh....trying to juggle too much. So how appropriate is this picture to perfectly demonstrate that!

 

 Yes, my daughter is a Christmas firecracker or Christmas vomit (as Justin lovingly calls it). I think Christmas firecracker or the human form of going Griswold sounds much nicer.

And here's the back. I gotta say that I'm pretty darn proud of them. I took the one of Landry in her nursery on a day when she was working that camera like a runway model. 

 

 Of course, none of this is possible without my incredibly talented husband doing all the layout work. 

I think it might be my favorite card we've done so far, but maybe it's just the cute kids. 

Christmas cheer

I dread the family Christmas photo shoot. Normally, it involves meltdowns from both children and adults, snacks, bribery, and exhaustion. But I gotta say, that this year was pretty painless. We went to a park near our house which is more like a hiking trail and were there for 45 minutes...tops. Glorious.

The key? Don't do poses. Just go with it. Go with the silliness, the laughter and try to wrangle them in for a few family shots, but that's it.

I knew that our time was very limited, not only with the boys, but mostly because of Landry. That nursing schedule keeps you on your toes and there's no rest for the weary.

The silliness (and the promise of a beloved lollipop) help make things run smoother. But honestly, just playing around and genuine lovin' instead of posing helped make this one, one of my favorite shoots ever.

 

I've been on this whirlwind to get everything done before the end of my maternity which happened this week. My first official day back as a working mom was Monday. Ugh. So Christmas pictures were done earlier than ever before!

I began to adjust to this fake stay-at-home mom thing very quickly. I gotta say, it was really nice. I felt so refreshed picking up the boys from school even as a sleep-deprived mom with a newborn baby. Because at the end of the day, I had my family...

and had some one-on-one time with Landry that I will forever treasure.

 

The mother's guilt is all-consuming. If I stay home with Landry then I won't be able to see Nolan everyday in the halls and have that special mommy/Nolan time we have after school. 

 

 

And before I know it, Campbell will be right there at school with me too. 

 

 I'm scared about the trouble those two will get in together. 

 

They need to know that mama's just down the hallway to keep them in line. 

 

But if I go back to work, then I'm missing out all my all day snuggles with her and she's my BABY! 

 

So I decided that teaching really is the best of both worlds. It allows me to be a mom and work full time and the perk of the time off helps me sleep better at night. 

 The guilt never seems to go away when it comes to parenting. I seem to second-guess myself all the time.

And they seem to know a thing or two about what faces melt my heart and help them get away with just about anything. These same faces that make me want to quit my job just so I can stare at those adorable eyes all day. 

But as I have this inner war with myself weekly if I'm doing the right thing, I just remind myself that what matters most is that they feel loved, validated, and important to me.

 After that, everything else just falls into place.