It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

Love this time of year!  Love sharing it with these two little ones.  Telling them about our traditions and helping them understand the meaning of it all helps me to relive my favorite memories and Christmastime pleasures. 

Decorating the tree was quite an experience.  My usual order of ornaments was mixed up a little as they were both trying to dig in the box to look to see what was next. It was a chorus of, "Mama, where does this go?  Mama, can you help me hang this one?  Mama, can you hang this one up high?  We had only two casualties that hit the floor before being hung on just the right branch.  Our live tree is very beautiful even in the randomness of its ornaments. 

Cam got to decorate his very own gingerbread house too.  I think he had done this with Nonna before, but never at home.   I actually brought home the extra supplies that were leftover from my class' decorating extravaganza.  It was a perfect activity for him to do while Maeve napped.  He was very methodical with the placement of his can decor.  And, surprisingly, he only ate a couple of gumdrops too. 

The Christmas pjs have come out too.  We get a whole month's worth of Christmas pjs in around here and can be caught wearing them at other times besides bedtime!  I realized that Cam's pjs from last year were about 5 inches too short on the arms and legs.  But, Maeve has a plethora of handbydown pjs from Macie that she will enjoy throughout the month.  Nothing better than a clean baby decked out in comfy red and green pjs admiring the glow of the Christmas lights!

We have acquired a new tradition this year as well - an elf on the shelf that we lovingly named Elfis.  When we retreived the decoration boxes for Cam and Maeve's trees, we had a special package wrapped from Santa.  It was our elf.  After reading the book, we are very excited to know that he will be hanging out at our house during the days of December, but will head back to the North Pole to report back to Santa on the behavior of the day each night.  Cam gets into locating Elfis each morning and is bright eyed like he is on Christmas morning.  And even Maeve said with very wide eyes, "We can't touch him cause him will lose him magshic."    So far, he hasn't been as mischeivious as some other scout elves we've heard about. 

I also get a little carried away with the Christmas outfits, especially for Maeve.  Even when Cam was little, I would nearly smother him in some kind of red or green shirt as many days as I could.  Now, it is rare if you find Maeve in the month of December not sporting some kind of Christmas themed outfit.  I know I will miss the days when I don't get to be the CEO of their clothing! 

During this time, I am reminded of the song "Let Them Be Little."  Yep.  Let them experience all the joys of this magical season.  Even when it seems like you can't possibly squeeze one more thing in, do it for them.