It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

Did I skip right over Thanksgiving?

Yeah, I think I did.  I'm getting really slack about my picture taking, so I'll just admit right now that I didn't even see my camera the entire five days we were away for our "break."  I'm going to blame it on the fact that Caroline and Tyler are always on the move, always into something new, and always going in opposite directions.  It's honestly next to impossible to have good photo opps, and even when they do happen, they're over before I can even take the picture.  My kids are like flashes of lightning these days. 

However, they were enamored by our Christmas lights and ornaments as we pulled out the big boxes and dug elbow-deep into holiday cheer yesterday.  After throwing a strand of lights in their direction,  I was actually able to get them to sit side-by-side and look at me while I had my camera in-hand.  They draped them around each other, continuously plugged and unplugged them from the wall, and handed them back and forth for a good five minutes before getting totally bored.  I only had to place them back in their "seats" about 3,049,021 times during those 300 seconds, but whose counting?

If I'm being honest, I was really close to not doing much in the way of decorating this year.  Like, not even a tree.  I have heard horror stories of toddlers and Christmas trees, so it seemed like it would be more trouble than it was worth while constantly worrying about them pulling it over.  Nathan and I tossed around ideas, such as tethering it to the wall with fishing wire, but in the end decided to just give it a go.  If any of you that don't have kids are thinking "just tell them not to touch it," -- HAHAHAHA, is what I have to say to you.  As it turns out, they haven't really even bothered it yet.  We have Jaxx & Connor's tree set up in the kitchen, and it's a tiny little Charlie Brown-style tree that is only about 3 feet high.  Tyler was touching the lights yesterday afternoon and it almost fell over, and I think it scared him enough that he doesn't want to take his chances with the big tree in the living room.  Caroline has been more interested in crawling around under the big tree like Jaxx does, and seemingly hasn't given a second thought to the small tree.  Who'da thought?

Right after the ornaments went up they both ran over, pointed and stared.  I decided soon after making the decision to decorate that we would go with a "less is more" theme this year, so our tree only has ornaments with sentimental value for the most part (and they're above reaching distance).  At eye level with T & C are unbreakable reindeer, snowmen, and santas.  :)

 

I'm really hoping to start our own family traditions soon, like stories before bed on Christmas Eve,  making peanut butter fudge and leaving letters for Santa, and telling tales of each and every significant ornament on our tree as we decorate it.  Although Tyler and Caroline aren't old enough yet to listen, Nathan and I enjoyed reminiscing as we hung our Sedona Mistletoe from our first vacation together as a couple, the San Francisco cityscape we picked up in a Salsalito boutique, the hand-painted ball from our honeymoon in Riviera Maya, and the first ornament we recieved as a family of 6 (can't forget the fur babies!).

As I worked furiously to hang bows on wreaths and position our outdoor entryway trees just right, Nathan made the comment that he'd "married his Christmas match!"  He adores everything about Christmas, and came bearing an entire mini-village with fake snow when he moved in with me even though he didn't own one stitch of actual furniture.  :)  What can I say, we are pretty traditional when you get down to it.  Hopefully we'll instill a love of Christmas in Tyler & Caroline as well, and they'll enjoy (rather than loathe) all the (potentially) corny things we try to make them participate in throughout the years!