'Twas the Days Before Christmas...

Hard to believe another Christmas has come and gone.  Seems like just yesterday that we were in Toronto for the Raptors game and I was rushing home to get things decorated.  The week between Thanksgiving and December seemed to go on forever, and for a while it seemed like we'd never make it through our Advent calendars.  Sure enough, Christmas ultimately sped here and raced past us like it always does.  And suddenly we're three days past and I haven't blogged yet.  Ha!

Oh, and before I get to the main event, since I never did mention this monumental anniversary last year, I figure I should do it now.  It was eleven years ago yesterday that I started this blog as a way to keep friends and family up to date on my pregnancy with Jacob.  There probably aren't a lot of things I've done regularly for this much of my life, so that's pretty impressive when you think about it.  Documenting parenthood just sort of happened, and while my kids will probably never read all of this, I'm glad it's here in case they do.  Not everyone has their life story written for them from birth, so hopefully someday they find it interesting.

Anyway...on to Christmas!  We had a very busy few days leading up, with lots of baking, wrapping, last-minute gift buying, and other general planning.  I was determined to not stress out, and all things considered I think I did okay.  I had moments, and sometimes left Craig with the kids so I could do marathon sessions, but for the most part I avoided the near-mental breakdown state that usually pops up a day or two before.  The pre-Christmas weekend helped a lot with getting to things that a normal work day does not.  In addition to Carter breaking a glass ornament at Pier One during a marathon shopping session there (!), here are some other pre-highlights:

I got a delivery of a pair of boots a week before Christmas, and the box they came in was ridiculous!  Given the season, it seemed appropriate to box up what we could, and it fit one of the best presents ever!

Carter had a fun week at school, from Grinch Day, to playing a mouse in the March of the Toy Soldiers day at school (he'll be a soldier next year), to their party day Thursday and Friday's pajama day.  The highlight of that day was opening up presents we gave the class in lieu of teacher presents.  It was a really fun idea (and selfless on the teacher's part), and the kids loved opening up presents of classroom supplies and new learning games.  He wore these Santa pajamas to school, and was still wearing them the next morning when we had a nice snuggle session prior to resuming the Christmas madness...

I had to wash those jammies immediately after so he could have them for Christmas Eve morning, too!

In the midst of everything else, I decided I needed to test out my plan for putting up a second tree in the dining room next year that will be a theme tree from year to year.  I had to make sure our old six-footer fit so I knew whether I could take advantage of clearance sales for lights and a tree topper.  Sure enough, it fit!

I had to leave out a couple back branches so it could tuck in the corner, but it worked just fine and I'm looking forward to putting all of my angels on it next year!  It'll also satisfy my craving for multicolored lights until our pre-lit main tree craps out.  It's more to decorate, but at least it will lessen my stress when decorating the main tree, since it's so loaded with ornaments and getting a couple more each year.

By Saturday night I had also baked a couple rounds of cookies.  I actually had to do the peanut butter blossoms on Thursday night because Jacob wanted cookies to take for his class party, since he usually can't eat most of the party snacks.  We did the cutouts on Saturday.

I stayed up late on Saturday to finish up all of my wrapping aside from a few last minute gifts we had to take care of on Sunday.  It was a marathon, but it was worth it.  And it still wasn't that late--just a little after midnight.  I couldn't help but snap this picture as I went up to bed, as having this little tree be the last thing lit on my way to bed sort of matched my peaceful Christmas spirit at that point.

I've wanted one of these ceramic trees for years, mostly because my grandma had a big one and I always thought it was pretty.  They've made a big comeback in recent years, but I wasn't willing to spend big bucks on one.  But I did find this tiny one in my favorite random-gifty-crap catalog this year, and when I placed an order for a Christmas gift for someone else, I had to add this to the mix since it was only $9.  It fit the bill perfectly.

On Sunday our church was doing an early round of Christmas Eve services, so we went to church like normal and got to enjoy a wonderful, beautiful service to start off our holiday.  Of course, Carter totally took a header on the way into church, scuffing up his chin and getting a large mud smear on his knee, but once we got over that (and the very loud drum that caught us off guard in the first song), it was lovely.

Afterward they had a hot cocoa bar and a few family picture backdrops set up, which I was eager to take advantage of since we didn't have to rush out like we did last year to get on the road.

Happy boy with his hot cocoa!

Mama and her boys

Full family pictures are few and far between in our house, so whenever we get the chance and we all look nice, I jump at the chance.  All three we took are below.  They're all sort of perfectly imperfect, I guess.

This shows the whole backdrop and we're all smiling, but Carter is pushing into Craig for some reason...

This was my best angle, but Carter is being crazy.  Of course, this probably best represents our daily chaos!

We're all standing nicely and smiling for this one, but I look like I'm carrying around about 30 extra pounds.  I swear it was just the angle and my sweater puffing out weird from where it draped off my chest.  Darn it.

After another full day of preparations, it was time to get the kids in bed so Santa could come.  Carter brought home some reindeer dust from school, so we had to run outside and dump it on the grass.  Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that after the forecast not looking like we'd have a white Christmas, we got a little bit of snow overnight a few days ahead, and then we had a lot of lazy, dreamy snow right up through Christmas.  We had more on the grass than it looks like here, but I was happy we had just enough to make it feel Christmasy.

Once the cinnamon rolls were prepped and the kids went down (much easier than expected), it was time for Santa to get to work!

As usual, at least half of those presents were. for extended family.  The kids' were mostly on the left side...except for that tall one, which was for Craig's mom.

Once everything is done, I always try to sit in the silence for a couple minutes with the main lights off and only the Christmas lights on.  It's my little calm before the storm, a little moment of peace before two full days of craziness.  Ahhhh.

Well, I think this is enough for one post, so we'll save our two crazy days of Christmas for another one!