A Merry State of Mind

Santa showed up a bit early this year, as we spread our Christmas festivities out between all of our various family members. But, today is actual Christmas eve and I am reminded, as I try to get back into the spirit of the holidays, that it's all a state of mind. The magic of the season is derived from the closeness of family and the tradition and familiarity of a special time shared each year on this day. This year, the kids may already be playing with their gifts from Santa and my side of the family, but the magic is still in the air and will linger there until our last Christmas celebration on Sunday with Dustin's family. Tis the season and we are falalalalaing all week long! I hope your Christmas Eve is magical and your Christmas is merry and bright!

She Wears Cold Well

It's clear that she's trying to look at something on the ground. What remains unclear is how she can see anything past those big, squishy, kissable baby cheeks! Cold looks so good on this girl!

Tickets! Get Yer Tickets!!!

"Seeing is believing but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see!"

-Conductor (The Polar Express)

When you are two, everything is real and you have no doubt. These two things combine to make life a very exciting and sometimes magical adventure. We kicked off the month of December with a viewing of The Polar Express, which was right up Lawson's alley due to his fascination with "choo choo's." It made my heart smile, though it should have come as no surprise, when Lawson popped out of his chair to grab a nearby piece of "peeper" to use a ticket for his ride on the Polar Express. Yes, he was ready to ride that choo choo to wherever it would take him and spent several minutes trying to hand his ticket to the "ductor" (conductor).

We also kicked off the month of December with the arrival of our Elf on the Shelf, Noggin (short for Eggnog and also reffered to as El Nino, which is mysteriously Lawson's way of saying Eggnog.). He's been waiting patiently in a box for over a year for Lawson to get old enough to play along and now every night as the children sleep, Noggin takes a trip to the North Pole to report to Santa about naughty or nice behavior then returns to the house in a brand new spot. So, each morning there is a hunt to find Noggin! Lawson loves it! He even took Lawson's train ticket for the Polar Express to the North Pole and it came back with ticket punches the next morning! Magic!



Naomi is pretty much oblivious to all of this, but has been having a grand old time sitting up and scooting backwards. She can get up into crawling position with her belly off the floor, so I'm thinking there's going to be a big, old box of trouble under the tree with her name under it.




To continue with our Holiday festivities, we went to get our tree today! We turned on some soothing holiday tunes, bundled up the kiddos to brave the 34 degree weather and headed off to the local tree lot.







Lawson walked around with his hands in his pockets and even smelled the trees to help us find the right one.



It was all smiles on the way back home with the car smelling Christmastreedelicious!




Now it's time for one of my favorite things about Christmas. Decorating the tree! Music, Cider and Christmas decor!!! All aboard the Christmas train!!! CHOO CHOO!!!!

"The thing about trains... it doesn't matter where they're going. What matters is deciding to get on."

Babies, it's Cold Outside

"I really can't play. Baby, it's cold outside.
Inside I must stay. Baby, it's cold outside."

We're a few weeks away from winter solstice, but someone forgot to tell Jack Frost. It is brrrrrrrrisk out there! I have to admit, I've not been very motivated to bundle up and head outside the past few days. I promised Lawson we'd make it out tomorrow, but tonight we're hanging out under the blanket fort reading stories and wrapping up Christmas presents to the sounds of Sting's new Christmas album. I'm digging this warm and cozy indoor holiday kind of day, but the kiddos have visions of hats and boots dancing in their mind. At least they got lots of play time over the weekend with family visiting for Thanksgiving! More on that later. For now, it's all about counting, colors and songs for me and my little monkey.