It's December! I can hardly believe we're less than 30 days from the end of 2018. I've been looking forward to the holidays this year because Barrett is all in on the magic. I know that this time is fleeting and I want to soak in every second of it. AveryAnn doesn't really get it all yet, but she knows it's something exciting because of how excited Barrett is. It really so such a special time of the year.
Friday morning started with Barrett waking up screaming that his ear hurt. So we made a trip to the pediatrician Friday morning. I'd just taken AveryAnn on Wednesday because she's had a runny nose and cough for about 3 weeks but otherwise acted like she felt fine. She had an ear infection and I felt like a jerk for not taking her sooner. So I was very thankful that Barrett could tell me his ear hurt.
Friday night I took some toys to a local toy swap. I knew I wasn't going to be able to go back and "shop" the next morning, so I donated my tickets back so someone else could shop. I didn't consult my kids before I took things and to my surprise they haven't even noticed the toys missing. I took big toys too. (Normally, I include them in this process but I was last minute and needed to get it done quickly.) Then I made cider and we watched the Christmas Chronicles on Netflix. It was good. It was a little mature for my kids but Barrett liked it. There were a couple of bad words but overall it was a cute movie.
We've been slowly decorating for the last two weeks. I still haven't gotten my downstairs tree up, hopefully I will this week.
Love our tree. It's nothing fancy, but it's full of memories. My mom gave us all of my childhood ornaments when we got married. I've added the kids ornaments each year plus our ornaments from vacations and the ornaments made at school. I could just look at it all day. I caught AveryAnn walking around it with her baby showing her all the "toys". (She calls the ornaments toys). It was really sweet. Barrett wanted to know the origin of every. single. ornament. while we were putting them all up. It was exhausting and really sweet.
I've already shown our advent wreath but here it is again. I love it.
I've had this advent calendar for a few years now but this is the first year that Barrett is really excited about it. I use it to hold the cards for our "Advent Activity Calendar". I just write the activity for each day and slip in the proper slot. I hung it in a different location this year. It's right outside all of our bedroom doors.
Our Santa pictures on the entry table.
This little ledge is going down the stairs to the den. I made these yarn trees several years ago and I think they're so fun and festive. I wasn't going to put them out this year but I couldn't resist. We hang the dogs stockings here. We're down to one and it looks a little lonely but we're not getting another dog.
My ladder bookshelf got a little cheer. The top is one of our pictures with Santa and that elf with Barrett's picture might be my favorite decoration. My sister brought us the little Christmas house incense burner from one of her trips (I can't remember exactly where now, Sorry Sis.) The nativity is one of my favorites too. My aunt got us this as a wedding gift and I love it. It's so simple and so beautiful. (Also a really good, different wedding gift.) We also have the fisher price nativity on our coffee table for the kids to play with so they don't mess with this one.
Our mantle pretty much looks the same each year. I did just add neutral and blush colored ornaments to my jars. I put the stockings on one side instead of each end. The bucket on the hearth holds all our Christmas books and the frame has our Christmas card each year.
This is the card tree and this particular tree might be the death of me. The lights went out last year so I added lights and it just looks terrible. But it will soon be filled with cards from people that are special to us.
Saturday morning, Mr. Elf returned. He left us paper to write our letters to Santa so he could take them back with him that night. Barrett was so excited!
He couldn't wait to fill out his letter. I wish I could bottle this age forever!
Patrick had to work Saturday so the kids and I hung around the house all day. We watched football and cartoons until it was time for the SEC Championship. We headed to Matt & Jennifer's house to watch the game with our crew. It was a crazy good game. We've beaten every opponent by 20+ points this season so to be behind until 1:00 left in the game was stressful. But we won, and it was a great game and great comeback story. It was one for the record books. I took zero pictures.
Sunday we broke out the Christmas dresses for the first week of Advent. She loved this dress because it has a ballerina on it. Barrett didn't get any Christmas shirts this year. I'm really sad that he's outgrown smocked outfits. I still throw in the polos with the small smocking plate but I couldn't find any that I loved this year so all his "Christmas clothes" are just his regular clothes that coordinate with her Christmas dresses. He's so handsome though. We spent the rest of our Sunday shopping for suits for Barrett and Patrick. We've got a wedding coming up this weekend and I feel like Barrett needs to wear a suit. Well, they don't make a matching suit his size that you can buy in a store. We found a couple blazers but I didn't love them. So we ended up ordering him one from Amazon. It'll be here tomorrow, I'll keep you posted. Patrick also needs a new suit but he got pushed to the back burner while we were looking for Barrett. He'll have to go this week and get something. We've got some fun things planned for this week. We're trying to soak in all of the season.
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