Go to bed early or stay up just so I can get the post up on Tuesday? Can you believe I actually stayed up? I love to sleep.
1. Guess what? Santa got it done. I am 95% ready for Christmas as far as the gifts go. This next week will be so much fun as Tony, my mailman (is that the politically correct term?), and my UPS driver bring me presents all week. It's a game to see if I can get the present in the Santa hiding spot without anyone seeing me. I get butterflies in my stomach when I hear the UPS truck coming down the street. Amazon is really the way to go for me. I do support the local Learning Express, Father Goose, and William's Store, but I can't get everything at those places and free shipping from Amazon makes me so happy. I really just love mail in any form. It started with sleep-away camp...... I am so far off track.
2.Our family has really gotten in to UNO. It started this summer and the kids really like it. It has yet to end in a fight no matter who wins, which is good for us. (I recall my childhood games of Sorry! never ended well. I could not take being the person who was sent back to the start.) I love family bonding over games. (Please don't tell Betsy that I actually enjoy the forced board games that she always makes the adults play at Tybee after the little ones are asleep.)
3. I went to the library today and checked out 7 cookbooks. I am so sick of everything I cook and I can't buy a bunch of $30 cookbooks. Writing recipes down at Barnes and Noble feels like stealing so hello library! What a deal the library is. If I am ever on a "spending freeze" I can go check out a bunch of books and still get the feeling of new stuff. (This is starting to sound like a problem.) Next week I'll tell you if I found any new and exciting recipes.
4. I am going to admit that sometimes I-Carly makes me laugh. OK there, I said it.
5. Traditions-planned habits with significance I love that definition. We talked about traditions in Sunday School this week and how you have them all during the year, not just the holidays. Traditions provide security and stability, connect us to the past and to each other (thank you Heather Stevenson). Think about the things you grew up doing as a tradition. How your family celebrated the holidays throughout the year, birthdays, summer vacation, and on and on. Now think of daily traditions. Jason and I get up before the kids to have a quiet time and prayer together. When I make my coffee, I make Packy's chocolate milk. He always gets up before we are finished and he loves to get his chocolate milk and get in "the hole" (the space on the couch between Jason and me) and listen to the Bible reading and prayer. If he comes down too late and we have already finished he says, "I wanna go sit on the coach and read the Bible and pray" in the sweetest Packy voice you can imagine. To him, our quiet time is a tradition. A planned habit with significance.
6. By the way, no one gave me any feedback on their Christmas traditions. No one. I know y'all have them. I guess some people are intimidated of the comment button. It's really not a big deal but I get it. No worries.
7. I don't know if it's because I just can't get into college football since Jason watches Georgia and I went to Auburn (War Eagle for Saturday. I have to say that.), but I have always had an easier time watching the NFL. It's just more fun to watch and we can both watch the Falcons on an even playing field. (Did you see Michael Vick Monday night? Whoa. I always liked him.) Sundays are just made for napping and the NFL.9. Did you know that in the Old Testament the command was to love others as you love yourself but in the New Testament it is to love others as I have loved you (talking about Jesus)? Do I love others as Christ has loved me? Sometimes I don't like people. Just people in general. I might have to make a sign to remind myself "As I loved you" and post it somewhere. I love to remind myself with signs because I forget everything all of the time. And because I have a laminating machine and a love of fonts, my signs are always cute.
10. Harry Potter this Friday. I'm just saying. No one in my family watches so if you see me alone at the movies I am not being creepy.
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I'll go!
We do pancakes on Christmas morning. I have molds for a reindeer snowman,and an elf. We also do gingerbread houses and gingerbread men decorating during the Christmas festivities. That's all I've got right now.....:)
On thanksgiving day we make "Reindeer food" at my MIL's house. the kids bag it up and give it to their friends so they can sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn on Xmas Eve night. We go to church on Xmas Eve and now that I have kids, they are in the pageant....when they agree to be! We also have an Elf on the Shelf, Zeebee is his name. He watches to make sure the boys are being good. It works some of the time.
We go to the Christmas program at church on Christmas Eve. Brandon and I are going to cut down our own Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving, and I want to make that something we do every year. I'm looking forward to starting our own traditions. This will be our first Christmas together as a married couple!!!
Because I'm all weird and blog-stalker-ish (and probably fall into that category of "I just don't like people"), I just have to comment when the challenge is thrown (Christmas traditions!).
I'm terrible at creating traditions. Poor Meryt is five and I don't think we've ever done the same thing twice. My mom was AWESOME at traditions. We still do a Christmas puzzle every year at home in Savannah...which she shallacks (sp?) and uses for decoration the next year. I love walking through the house and being flooded with memories about that specific Christmas. We also went driving around every single year looking at Christmas lights. Sometimes we'd take hot chocolate, sometimes not. Sometimes it would be planned, sometimes spur of the moment. I'm trying to do that with Meryt every year. This will be the second (shock) year we get our Starbucks hot chocolate and drive around town looking at lights. We do have an Elf on the Shelf that is making this third annual appearance (although she only remembers him from last year). Our nephews come over on Christmas Eve morning to make cookies for Santa (and to give their mom a break for a while!). We have the same breakfast at my parents' house every year that we've had my entire life (just thinking about missing that this year makes me get teary eyed).
This year, I'm starting the Jesse tree with Meryt. I'm also doing 25 ways to celebrate Christmas. I'm making cute envelopes with one task in each one. Every morning, we'll open our daily envelope and at some point during the day, we'll do the task. Some are silly (sing and dance to your favorite Christmas carol), some are more involved (make a Christmas decoration), some are really planned (go see The Nutcracker). Just a way for us to really slow down and spend time together. I'm REALLY good at sending her off to do her own thing and not spending quality time with her. I'm hoping this helps us enjoy each other a little extra this Christmas.
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