Life Is Just So Daily: Busy Busy Christmas Season!

Oh, the holiday season is so busy. I swear---the more friends we make and the more involved we become, and the older our kiddos get---the more hustle and bustle there is around the holidays. How blessed are we? Don't get me wrong---it wears a girl down, but how lovely is it that we have so many wonderful friends and events to attend? How wonderful is it that we celebrate the holiday in so many different ways with so many different people? It's pretty darn wonderful!

So---you'll have to forgive me if I have 8 zillion posts about the holidays. It just really is a magical time!

It's a magical time...but it can also be a lot of work. Who are we kidding, right??? There are the decorations to pull out of the attic and arrange just so.... a tree to obtain and gussy up....It's just a lot of work! But it's so fun when it's done.
:)
Some of our pics along the way....

The Nativity sets were a big hit with Eliette....

...though, she always wanted to put Baby Jesus standing up in the magnetic set...

There was some neighborhood "jingling" going on.... That's always fun.

...and oh, the shopping!

Eliette says, "Toys R Us? Yes, please."
"Northpark? Well, that's fun too!"

Or---rather it WAS fun. It was fun until we noticed that Eliette had once again stolen something from a store. {Have I blogged about this yet? I don't know if I have, but this is her THIRD thing to swipe. First: a pair of sunglasses that she threw into the cart and they were initially overlooked. Second: a small pumpkin from a pumpkin patch that she put in the diaper bag unbeknownst to me, and so we took it home. Third: this little Lego dude.} We returned the stowaway, and they were quite neutral about the whole event. She's too young to really understand, but Gage was there and he got the lesson.

What else goes into holiday prep...??? Oh! The outside lights. I'm married to quite the Griswold, so exterior illumination at the holidays is very important. This year's theme: A Gingerbread House. Theme picked by Gage, brought to fruition by Daddy.

The gingerbread boy and girl are kind of hard to see up in front of the gingerbread house,but they're there. Gingerbread Eliette and Gingerbread Gage. Oh, happy times!

Scroll back up and look at that little front yard tree. So many lights. It has candy all in it too. Makes me think of some kind of Seuss tree from The Lorax. It makes me smile. He loves doing all of this lighting for the kids.

When you have a live tree, you have to water it. We thought we'd have Gage get down there and water it. Somehow that didn't work out and Daddy always had that chore. Don't worry---Eliette was ALWAYS willing to help. She's a helper.

In fact, almost daily she would un-decorate and re-decorate the part of the tree that she could reach. Best decision of the season: put only plastic ornaments all along the bottom third of the tree, and put a basket nearby to hold the ornaments when not on the bottom 1/3 of the tree! Thus, this became a keep-happy activity for our busy little bee!