It's HERE!!!!

It's December!!!!!  We wait 11 months every year for December to get here.  So expect LOTS of blog posts this month.  

Last year, decorating the house for Christmas was SO much easier because Barrett wasn't walking yet.  Now he can run to all of the boxes, take everything out of them (which means a big mess of glitter and sparkles to clean up), and push over the Christmas tree. So I figured out a way to distract him give him another way to "help."

Very First Hot Chocolate

Barrett and Mommy Starbucks Time

My side of the family LOVES Christmas.  Ok ... it's probably fueled by my sister and me.  So we had a "What does your house look like so far?' FaceTime chat.

Showing His Cousin Our Christmas Tree

After all that hard work, snuggling in your pajamas is a great way to spend the evening

Sporting New Santa Jam-Jams

We are also starting to see signs of Christmas around town.  Frequent phrases I hear from the backseat of the car are "Look Mommy! It's Christmas" and "Listen to Christmas Song!"

 Showing Mommy (and the babies in Mommy's tummy. Wow that's huge!) the Christmas Tree

Another frequent Christmas sight in our house is Barrett wearing a Santa hat and a diaper.  It's his favorite after bathtime/before bedtime outfit.  I love watching him run around the room and clean up all of his toys in this "outfit."

 "There's a Snowman"

Showing Mommy How to Use "Just One Finger" When Touching the Tree

(so far it's working!)

Then comes Christmas Time Bedtime:

Matt and I have loved reading Barrett's Christmas books with him before he goes to bed each night.  Two books are $1 finds at the Target Dollar Spot, and one is a Hallmark book that I recorded myself reading last year.  When we "read" it he hears Mommy's voice reading with Christmas music playing in the background.  We've got Santa and Rudolph down!  Then when December rolled around, we started reading Storybook Bible selections based on an Advent Calendar Reading Plan I came across online.  We decided to read it all together as a family of 3 (instead of just whoever happens to be doing story time before he goes to sleep), and I could tell he thought it was something special because  BOTH Mommy and Daddy were in his room reading with him.  This might possibly be my new favorite Christmas tradition.